The Enthusiasm of Burning Desire

“Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Entusiasm can be defined as the difference between a goal and a wish. Without it, you will be unlikely to succeed – no matter how worthy your goal or how workable your plan. Complementing desire is enthusiasm, the companion of success in every achievement, every worthwhile venture, and every upward step in human progress. It is the element that changes a wish into a BURNING DESIRE!

To achieve a burning desire, you must embrace these 3 values with Enthusiam:

**Definite Purpose

**Burning Desire

**Success Conscious

You need to be obsessed with one target. Focus on it. Opportunity has a sly habit of slipping in the back door and it often comes DISGUISED in the form of misfortune of temporary defeat.

One of the most common causes of FAILURE is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by TEMPORARY DEFEAT.

Greatest success of the most successful people come through sticking with their goals when defeat seems to have overtaken them. Looking into the origins of the word Enthusiasm, I find it comes from "Middle French (around 1600 and means ""be inspired or possessed by God", or "God within us". A burning desire to be and to do is the starting point from which the dreamer must take off. Dreams are not born of indifference laziness or lack of ambition.”

“When one is truly ready for a thing, it puts in its appearance.”

Crisis Equals Opportunity Riding the Dangerous Wind

President John F. Kennedy once told us about a Chinese proverb. He said, "The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis'. One stroke stands for danger, the other for opportunity.
In a crisis, be aware of the danger - but recognize the opportunity."
Since my early adult years, I have learned that proverb as "Crisis is Opportunity Riding the Dangerous Wind"!
Sometimes the opportinities are very well disguised! But they are there. In any crisis, we should learn what we need to succeed beyond the moment!
Who said, "Out of crisis comes opportunity"? Albert Einstein!
Perhaps we might reflect on this famouse quote when thinking about the prospects of businesses surviving the economic damage result from the government having imposed COVID-19 health measures; as well as the political and social crises presently at hand!

What are Your Shortcuts?

Once there was a lark singing in the forest. As a farmer was passing by on his way to market, the lark stopped him and asked, "What do you have in the box and where are you going?" The farmer replied that he had worms and that he was going to the market to trade them for some feathers. The lark said, "I have many feathers. I will pluck one and give it to you and that will save me looking for worms."

The farmer gave the worms to the lark and the lark plucked a feather and gave it in return. The next day the same thing happened and the day after and on and on until a day came that the lark had no more feathers. Now it couldn't fly and hunt for worms. It started looking ugly and stopped singing and very soon it died.

What is the moral of the story? The moral is quite clear what the lark thought was an easy way to get food turned out to be the tougher way after all. Isn't the same thing true in our lives? Many times we look for the easier way, which really ends up being the tougher way.

Practice Short Jumps!

I love this story shared many years ago, by Paul J. Meyer, founder of Success Motivation Institute!

A big game hunter in India sighted a large Bengal tiger. Since the animal was only a short distance away, the hunter took a quick shot...but sadly, he missed! Fortunately, the tiger, in leaping toward the hunter, had jumped too far...and he also missed!

Back safely at camp, the hunter began practicing short shots. He was determined never to be caught unprepared again! When he returned into the jungle the following day, the first thing he saw was that same Bengal tiger....practicing short jumps!

Perhaps this could direct each of us in relation to our long-range goals!We will only achieve them by achieving our short-term objectives. While keeping your eye on your principal purpose....remember to practice your short jumps!

Don't Be a Cat Kicker!

Mr. B is the CEO of a big insurance company. When he left his house in the morning, he headed towards his car as usual. When he opened his car door, he noticed that he was seriously late for an early meeting he had scheduled with his sales team! In an effort to recover some of the lost time, he was speeding along the expressway around 90 MPH. He attracted the attention of a Highway Patrol officer, who wrote him a citation! When he arrived at the office 45 minutes late,Mr. B held the meeting. Throughout the whole meeting, he yelled a lot, insultingly pointed out their mistakes, and took his anger out on them.

The managers felt very bad after the meeting and took their anger out on their employees who took their anger out on the people who worked beneath them – and so the chain of anger reached the office maintenance man, who, at the end of the day, went home. His wife opened the door for him and asked, “why are you coming home so late,” and he yelled at her and said, “I didn’t go to the office to play I went to work! Don’t make me angry with your questions!”
The wife felt that the husband yelled at her for no reason and took her own anger at the situation out on her child who was watching television in the living room: “This is what you do all day, don’t you have homework to do?! I’m shutting the T.V off now!” The upset child left the house to let off some steam. He crossed paths with their cat and gave it a swift kick!
It seems to me that it would have been easier on everyone if Mr. B had just dropped over to the maintenance man's home and kicked the cat himself! (This a modified version of a lesson often presented by the late Zig Ziglar)

In this world, there are things that may anger or stress us out that pass from person to person. Each of us has the responsibility to understand this cycle of anger, to catch it in time and to stop it. When you find yourself in an upsetting situation, instead of passing your anger on to others, swap the negative feeling out for a positive one. Choose the feeling you want to feel more and spread it to others making sure it has lots of room in your life. We must learn to respond positively in negative situation!

To Know and Not to Do....

In my recent efforts to research and write this blog, I came upon a name from my distant past...Mr. Skip Ross.You may find me quoting him along with many other authors and speakers of the last 40 years! I fear that some of theirr messages have, over the years become my own. Thus, if I fail to give credit all the time, it may be because I don't recall where I learned the concept. For example, The quote above was used often by Skip Ross over the years, but I also heard a similar quote from Stephen Covey, Buddah, other Asian philoshers, and more. Skip will readily admit that it is not his uniquely.

How many times have you heard someone talk a good game, but when it came time to perform, the disconnect between their talk and walk became evident? Have you ever taken a college-level class to learn a specific skill? Allow me to share with you a few specific examples. I am certain the list could be endless.As a much younger man I was training to be a police officer. Many of my courses were being taught by experienced law enforcement personnel, or retired specialist. One was a retired document examiner with the FBI. Some "General Ed" classes were taught by folks just out of school themselves, with NO real-world experience....just the "book learnin'" part! One such example was a required "health"class where the teacher proclaimed that having a baby was like squeazing a tube of toothpaste! A mother of five children happened to be a student in that lecture! It didn't bode well for that poor young man!

Later, on another adventure into my education, I was studying digital imaging with an instructor who had retired from that industry. Other related coursework was taught "in theory", since the instructor had no real-world experience.

Would you appreciate it if your surgeon had been trained by doctors who had never operated? The answer is painfully obvious! People can see the disconnect when someone is not able to DO what they claim to know, often to an embarrassing end!

Stinkin' Thinkin' vs Possibility Thinking

Many years ago, a business associate would often refer to a negative attitude as "Stinkin' Thinkin'. (He was a southerner!) Around the same time I was introduced to Dr. Robert Schuller and his concepts built on Possibilty Thinking. Other powerful speakers and authors of note have also written and spoken much regarding the "Power of Positive Thinking"!
As I was preparing my notes for this article, I came upon a presentation by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, given at Dr. Schuller's Crystal Cathedral in 1987. The topic of his address was "Positive Thinking Works Wonders". Dr. Peale shared an interesting concept at the beginning of his presentation...

Dr. Peale and his wife were on a trip to Hong Kong. His wife wanted to visit a dressmaker there. While she was thus engaged, he decided that he would take a walk through the narrow streets of the Kowloon District, among the millions of people. Looking at all the little shops along the way, Dr. Peale noticed a tatoo parlor with displays of the styles of "artwork" the patron might select. He spotted one on unusual concern to him, as the consumate Optimist he was....it read "Born to Lose"!
That drew him into the tatoo shop for a closer look. As he pointed it out to propietor, he was directed to remove his coat and such. He assured the man that he did not want a tatoo, but only had a question! "Who, in their right mind, would ever emblazen "Born to Lose" across their chest?" The tatoo artist replied in his broken English, "Before tatoos on chect, it already tatooed on brain!"

If we immerse ourselves in Stinkin Thinkin, then we have tatooed on our brains the message "Born to Lose"! Would it perhaps be more productive to immerse ourselves into Possibility Thinking? Think about it!