We are born eager.
Enthusiastic.
We are born with the capacity to have our minds blown on the regular.
We are easily excited.
Easily psyched.
And overflowing with energy.
As kids we run as fast as we can.
Laugh really hard, at everything.
Nothing can slow us down.
Because we’re eager.
We’re explorers, makers, builders, organizers, leaders, and performers.
And, we soak up the new, the undiscovered, the thing we’ve never seen or heard or felt before.
We’re charged.
And, we live that way until something happens.
Until we share with the wrong person…
We’re eager until we run into annoyance, frustration, impatience, or disdain.
We’re eager until we see a look flash across someone’s face that translates to “eagerness is not okay, calm down”.
When we rush to someone with our newest idea or creation, and it is quickly brushed to the side.
When we craft something we believe is extraordinary, only to have it ignored or laughed at.
We let our eagerness run wild until the day we feel the heartbreak of disapproval.
When, for the first time, our energy, our humor, our creativity, our expression, our idea isn’t met with the same eagerness and enthusiasm….
We might look around and realize… not everyone else is as eager and enthusiastic as I am… if fact, a lot of people are cool, aloof, impatient, and busy.
Others don’t laugh as loudly as I do.
Others don’t share their creations as wildly as I do.
Others don’t run as fast and as free as I do.
Others don’t relax as deeply.
Others don’t enjoy things as fully.
Others aren’t as eager.
So you tighten up.
You mimic those around you to avoid the heartbreak of feeling different, separate, weird, or even annoying.
You get a little more quiet, a little less eager, a little less enthusiastic, a little less free.
You start to censor yourself, monitor your behaviors, tamp down your energy and fit in.
And, over time you replace your eagerness with cynicism… your joy for indifference… and your uniqueness with conformity.
“That’s incredible!” becomes… “been there, done that”.
“Look at the amazing thing I created!” becomes…. “It’s still not good enough”
We’ve shrunken into ourselves in the hopes of “not bothering” those around us with our wild enthusiasm.
We’ve locked away the parts of us that light up with the discovery of something new, and we’ve become a person who is frightened by change.
And it’s exhausting.
(No wonder we’re all so damn tired)
It’s time now to reignite the eager.
Be loud.
Be enthusiastic.
If you find something cool, shout it from the rooftops.
If you make something cool, show everybody.
Hang it on the goddamn refrigerator.
At our core, we are eager.
So, let it shine.
