I just started reading Timothy Ferriss’s (@TFerriss) “The Four Hour Work Week.” I found myself at a shortage of time and hope that it can give me a few shortcuts. One thing so far that stood out to me was Ferriss’s explanation of human desire. He believes that it isn’t happiness itself that people are searching for, but rather excitement in their lives.
While I don’t believe this to be entirely true — due to the fact that the end goal is still happiness and other factors, such as comfort, play a role as well — the man does make an interesting observation. Excitement is important because it moves us to action like nothing else. It is what allows for momentum to be built and what gives us that amazing feeling of happiness and simultaneous fulfillment.
Without excitement in your life, you are likely to fall into a sort of depression. Life will feel dull and we will feel unhappy. Too much excitement might not be a good thing, but no excitement at all is hell on earth. We are animals that live on excitement. Our nerves and senses become excited so we feel, hear, see, smell, taste. Excitement is the result of the interaction between the outside world and our minds.
Excitement in the way that we mean it in the context of this article, is our mind's reaction to what we perceive along with all the reasoning that goes along with it. If we never feel excited then we don’t feel alive; we feel as if we were already dead. If that’s not depression then I don’t know what is.
The trick to finding excitement is being excited by the little things. For example, I recently received an email from a certain CEO that I had been hoping would be willing to mentor me, stating the affirmative. It kept me smiling all day. What little things make you happy? Playtime with your dog or cat? Getting tasks done? Having deep conversations with friends? Excitement comes in many different forms, but in all cases it is accompanied by a degree of enjoyment.
Learn to enjoy and be excited by the simpler things in life and you will never run out of things to be excited by. Oppositely, if you focus only on the big things — like a promotion or skydiving or an engagement — then you will eventually run out of things to stimulate you.
Boredom doesn’t allow for excitement, so make sure to change up your routine regularly. Switch things up a bit and leave your comfort zone. Do things that you haven’t done before or wouldn’t regularly do. I’m not saying to go bungee jumping — if you’re going to risk your life you may as well go skydiving — a walk on the other side of town or a meal at a different spot will suffice.
If we fill our lives with constant smaller new experiences we will feel alive — something few can say. Feeling such enjoyment and excitement in your life will make you feel…better. You will be happier and you will have the energy and momentum to move the rest of your life in the right direction.
The more excited we regularly feel, the more we want to do; the more we want to act, move. How much easier would it be to get done what you need to get done if life excited you daily? How much more active, productive and efficient would you be? What could you accomplish? How much more excited will you be once you start to accomplish your goals? Where will that excitement take you? Once you get that moment built and keep being excited and moved by the littler things, you’ll be unstoppable.
On top of that, there is no better way to brush off failures — of which you should have many or otherwise you just aren’t trying — then by being excited by the things that make up the remainder of your life. Live fully; get excited.
