“Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes shine to the stars” – Henry Ford

If anyone knows me personally, they will know that I have had a stack of different jobs in my twenty-six years.

The truth is that I have always loved learning new things, networking with different people and adjusting to new environments.

From when I first walk into an interview to when I leave a job – my enthusiastic and positive personality is what shines through.

I like to make people feel at home when they have a conversation with me.

I enjoy bringing out the best in people and making them feel like they can do anything.

I have always believed that people who hold an enthusiastic outlook and belief in what themselves and others can achieve are the greatest leaders. After all, a fantastic leader is normally a result of the strong team behind them.

These fantastic leaders focus their time on what they can do rather than what they cannot.

They display a superior level of optimism and integrity to every task that they do.

Leaders completely harness their team’s strengths and capitalise on it.

So it knocked me for six when a former boss of mine said that I was too enthusiastic and that I needed to dull my enthusiasm down a few octaves.

Re-read that sentence again – I bet you need to.

I bet you are asking how I could be TOO enthusiastic?

Here are examples of how I behaved:

I was and am very friendly towards people and brightly acknowledge them at all times of the day.

I do and did love to make people smile and empower them.

I loved and still enjoy bringing a little sunshine to the office, whilst performing as hard as I can in the trenches.

I obviously cared very much about my former boss’ opinion of me more than my own because I completely defused my flame, dulled my brightness and was not my warm self for a few weeks after that conversation.

When I would normally hug someone that was feeling down, I refrained.

When it was someone’s birthday, I did not bring in flowers – I just wished them a simple ‘happy birthday’.

I found myself monitoring my conversations like a policeman trying to find out if a person was about to commit armed robbery. However, I was no robber – I was just a phony.

In my fantasy land of wanting to appease my former boss – I thought I was putting on a great façade until I realised that the only person I was fooling was myself. I was like a teenage girl trying to be someone that I wasn’t in front of a boy to impress him. I had this ridiculous image in my head of what I should be like and I was constantly trying to wear this image with pride. So many people that I worked with started asking me if I was okay or if anything was wrong.

I felt like a fraud.

I was miserable.

It was like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

The time that I spent monitoring my conversations and behaviour could have actually been spent accomplishing something really fabulous.

After a few weeks, I ended up leaving the job with the enthusiasm killing boss as there was no use working for a company that did not align with the person I wanted to be. After all, I had spent twenty-six years crafting that enthusiastic person and I was pretty proud of her.

I began to see my enthusiasm as my strength.

I started realising that I was born to stand out and that:

Enthusiasm is a driving force to every successful story. @reclaimyourmagi (Click to Tweet!)

A person’s sense of enthusiasm is a key character trait which determines their success.

Being more enthusiastic than others pushes you into a new level compared to every one around you. You are more optimistic. You have a smile permanently tattooed on your face. With these cards in your hand, there is no question of if you are going to have success, but when.

Enthusiasm drives you to strive to be more. Not because someone is forcing you to but because you genuinely want to. When you add enthusiasm to your repertoire, I can guarantee that your level of success will even surprise you.

Think of an office environment where you have two employees.

Michael does the absolute minimum that he has to do and does not bring any level of enthusiasm to the workplace. He is there because he needs to pay his mortgage and support his wife and kids. He does everything that he needs to do but not everything that he could muster. He barely speaks to anyone in his team.

Simon has the same responsibilities as Michael. He goes the extra mile to make sure that his colleagues are happy and empowered. He will go above and beyond to make sure that he hits every target that he can and more.

Who do you think is more likely to receive a promotion? Who do you think you would rather have on your team?

Your sense of enthusiasm opens up a million doors and brings out every one in the workplace’s best, not just yours. The more emotionally invested you are into what you are doing, the more that your enthusiasm will turn into passion. Everyone knows that passion is the foundation of success, well enthusiasm is the foundation of passion.

I encourage you to use the art of enthusiasm more in everything you do and to watch the results as they multiply.

Stefanie Costi believes that enthusiasm is a driving force to every story of success. She wants to be your positive energiser when your motivation levels are low. You can email her at stefanie.costi@gmail.com or contact her on Instagram, FB or Twitter.

Image courtesy of unsplash.com.