Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." An enthusiastic attitude enables us to hang in there when the going gets tough. It's the inner drive that whispers, "I can do it!" when others believe it can't be done. It is a common quality that inventors, explorers, and other high achievers have in order to do great things. Barbara Bartocci, in the May 1988 edition of Catholic Digest wrote, "Enthusiastic people turn a boring drive into an adventure, extra work into opportunity and strangers into friends."

Stay Young of Heart

Have you ever seen an infant delight at the jingling of a rattle, or a toddler's joy at watching the hopping of a frog? This childlike wonder, fueled by enthusiasm, is the same quality that has separated high achievers from everyone else. Their enthusiasm is not measured by their biological age. Instead, it is enthusiasm for life that is the catalyst for their youthful energy and drive. Pablo Casals thought of music as an elixir that made his life a never-ending adventure well into his nineties. An enthusiastic outlook has helped Bob Delmonteque maintain his intensity and excitement for health and fitness after almost six decades of working out.

It has been said that nobody grows old merely by living a given number of years; people grow old by deserting their ideals. Years wrinkle the skin, but giving up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, doubt, and self-distrust bow the head and turn the spirit back to dust.

Marjorie Greenbie once wrote: "You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair."

Our minds act like a receiver, and as long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, and cheer, you are young at heart (Philippians 4:8-9). However, when our enthusiasm falters, and our thoughts become obscured with doubts and fears, our heart becomes covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism. Then, as Marjorie Greenbie pointed out, you are "as old as your despair."

Avoid Spiritual Wrinkles

It is interesting to note that the word enthusiasm derives its meaning from the Greek words "God within." Having God's spirit and attitude within us brings about enthusiasm for the spiritual things like loving God, loving our fellow human beings, and loving what we are called to do (Galatians 5:22-23).

To love what we do is the very essence of enthusiasm. What can be more exhilarating than knowing that we are created in the very image of God, called out of this world to be his instruments and destined to be with him forever in the Kingdom of God? It should put a sparkle in our eyes, a jump in our step, and smooth out the wrinkles from our spirit.

Youthful vigor and enthusiasm is a gift from God to those he has called to rule with Him someday in the Kingdom of God. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and walk, and not faint" (Isaiah 40:31). That says it all.