Dragos Roua is a self-published author, with 9 titles on Amazon, Kindle and iBookStore. His blog has made it 3 years in a row, since 2014, on the top 100 Personal Development Blogs at Start Of Happiness. He also contributes Lifehack.org.
External url: http://dragosroua.com/maintaining-enthusiasm/#.WCyeBtV97IV
Tags: Getting Things Done Productivity Effectiveness
When you are in the flow, never do anything in one turn, keep a piece of work for later, but “contaminated” with the positive energy that started the whole lot. When you are doing stuff enthusiastically, you tend to consume everything, to live it totally and end up tired and somehow empty. Allow yourself “to be continued” in another episode of the same movie… In terms of GTD it might translate as a “Someday/Maybe” promise that you will actually enjoy to do and enjoy to see when you are doing your weekly reviews.
Please refer to the blog for more details on this activity.
So right! I kind of experimented this one - to make sure it does what it says. Here goes my experiment. Last night I was lil' bored - so I got a thriller book Hide & Seek by Ian Rankin out the shelf ( I bought it recently but did get a chance tostart reading). So it took me around 45 pages - then I got very much into it. I was living in the story witnessing how Rebus is checking out the crime scene. I read 15 minutes more and when I was totally "can't-put-it-down" situation. I closed it and went to sleep. It help me sleep better - I felt the enthusiasm gave me a good night sleep. Then in the morning I am so excited, eager to return to the book. I am doing all my chores with much enthusiasm!
It really worked!
This is lovely!!! I would surely try this piece of advice! :)
I have never been adviced to keep a portion of the task for later! But wow! I always felt like lets finish it later but now..Seems like I'm already excited!
Enjoy as much as you can what you do. The higher the pleasure you take from doing your stuff, the easier to remember. Each action resulted from enthusiastic processing it’s actually a positive milestone in your brain, a positive memory that can easily be reproduced, or at least used as a “state-igniter” in other contexts.
I am bad at it that too very horribly. For this reason I prefer doing jobs that has short projects, exciting ones too.
My job gets monotonous at time but I can't drop it. Sometime I don't enjoy it get bored - STUCK! I am doing a desk job there is no challenges no creativity in it. What to do?
I generally have very less enthusiasm in my tasks. But, if I lose interest in everything like this - life will be a burden. So I started spicing up things. I have subscribed to 5-Minutes Craft Youtube Channel. It is getting interesting. I am learning new ways of doing old things. Now I look forward to a chore. :)
I love and enjoy what I do. It really keeps me going on.
I really do believe it right from the bottom of my heart. Whether it is a relationship or a writing, it must from inside.... I should be enjoying it if not then there is something wrong. If I am not enjoying what I am doing it is never going to turn up good! Gosh.... seems it is too much to digest but I think it this way only.
Yes as a matter of fact, but what about those that I hate doing?
When you are in the flow your attention is much more detached and capable of understand and see things that you can imagine. Only because you feel monolithical it doesn’t mean you can’t actually understand far more that you could understand from your environment than in a normal state. So, knowing that, make a special attention to the periferical signs of pleasure and joy that you encounter in each specific action. There might be signs that you don’t even notice, but remembered lately, and create a favorable context.
I believe in being sweet - there is already so much trouble going on around. My stress factor isn't an external one. But the thing is that I feel scared of hurting someone. Probably that is my nature - born like that. :) But that shouldn't be so - the world is rough outside even if I am not rude - practical but at least I shouln't blame myself. I am still trying to identify what can help me in this situation.
So is it more like breaking the flow?
Recognizing and understanding the signs of discomfort can actually help me to maintain my enthusiasm. It is very important to make a note of all the things disturbing me! I just did that today!
This one relates closely to the last one: encourage the favorable contexts of your actions. Once you have identified your favorable contexts try to use them as frequently as you can. If you are a person that enjoy socializing, try to put your @Phone context higher than @Computer context. You will act more often on that context and you will feel less stressed. But if you are more like an introverted person don’t hurt yourself with higher social endeavors and push the @Computer context first. And don’t be guilty about that also. That’s the trick.
Giving priority to what I favor more? How to apply that on my work out regimen?
So is it doing what I feel relaxed doing?
Prioritize emotions instead of thoughts. Once you have consistently integrated the collection habit enjoy your RAM emptiness and don’t feel guilty if you don’t think at anything for 30 seconds. Or 2 minutes. Or 10 minutes. Give yourself the very rare benefit of not thinking and only let your emotions to surface.
Express them in language, physical exercise, specific activities like playing with your kids, talking to your wife or relaxed conversing with your colleagues at work, but let your thinking aside. Your growing emotional energy will seed your future enthusiasm.
Most of the time, I am trying to workout my emotions. They are never at a level. Always flowing over the danger level.
Sounds too much crazy - lil' hard for me to absorb in one go. But I started with a minute.
It is really a rare benefit of not thinking. Amazing. I have never thought about it like this way. But, unfortunately it never happened with me. I overthink too much.
Emotional energy - nice! I tried it this morning and I actually felt my lost enthusiasm coming back!
And the last one: if you don’t feel enthusiastic at all, don't blame yourself. If you don’t blame yourself and let your energies constantly grow. If you constantly consume your feeble resources with guilt and desperate bets on your next enthusiasm state, you will eventually consume every little piece of common sense left and get burned out pretty soon.
I try not to blame myself but I do it all the time. This is getting SICK for me
There is a small difference between blaming myself and taking responsibility of my actions. Yes, I must look at the circumstances before blaming. Whether it is me or someone else to be blamed!
I give up hardwork so easily, I give up on me... Then blame. But I am now doing a strength training - though I got sore shoulders but still pushing myself hard not to discontinue. It has taught me... to not to give up is better than giving up and later on blaming myself.
I was having a really bad time to not to blame myself - finally I came across this huffinton article. Stop blaming yourself in 3 steps. I was literally losing my confidence and trust!
I get disappointed early and start blaming myself even before others say a word to me. I suffer a lot of depression. I even hesitate to try it again. I understand something I am not the reason of the failure. There are X factors as well. I do try but fail and get back to blame game. But, this time I promise to myself I will not blame myself - it will give it another sincere try.
Okay, I won't accuse myself for not doing it fine, but should I stop it altogether .. mean take a break? How to feel enthusiastic about it if I am not at all keen ?
It is about doing things that you find less stressful, you enjoy doing. It is all about encouraging things that you are comfortable with.
No it is about identifying what stresses you and what makes your enthusiastic. Knowing it would help you to minimize the effect of stress.
Even I have the same question!
What do you mean by altogether? You cannot force yourself, but just ignore wrong or negative thoughts. For not being enthusiastic, try applying 5 minutes rule. Do things for 5 minutes at a stretch. Probably you are not enjoying something in long duration. You may enjoy it for a short duration.
Thanks Adam!