Years ago, when I started looking for my first job, wise advisers urged, "Barbara, be enthusiastic! Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience."
How right they were. Enthusiastic people can turn a boring drive into an adventure, extra work into opportunity and strangers into friends.
"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm," wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is the paste that helps you hang in there when the going gets tough. It is the inner voice that whispers, "I can do it!" when others shout, "No, you can't."
It took years and years for the early work of Barbara McClintock, a geneticist who won the 1983 Nobel Prize in medicine, to be generally accepted. Yet she didn't let up on her experiments. Work was such a deep pleasure for her that she never thought of stopping.
We are all born with wide-eyed, enthusiastic wonder as anyone knows who has ever seen an infant's delight at the jingle of keys or the scurrying of a beetle.
It is this childlike wonder that gives enthusiastic people such a youthful air, whatever their age.
At 90, cellist Pablo Casals would start his day by playing Bach. As the music flowed through his fingers, his stooped shoulders would straighten and joy would reappear in his eyes. Music, for Casals, was an elixir that made life a never ending adventure. As author and poet Samuel Ullman once wrote, "Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul."
How do you rediscover the enthusiasm of your childhood? The answer, I believe, lies in the word itself. "Enthusiasm" comes from the Greek and means "God within." And what is God within is but an abiding sense of love -- proper love of self (self-acceptance) and, from that, love of others.
Enthusiastic people also love what they do, regardless of money or title or power. If we cannot do what we love as a full-time career, we can as a part-time avocation, like the head of state who paints, the nun who runs marathons, the executive who handcrafts furniture.
Elizabeth Layton of Wellsville, Kan, was 68 before she began to draw. This activity ended bouts of depression that had plagued her for at least 30 years, and the quality of her work led one critic to say, "I am tempted to call Layton a genius." Elizabeth has rediscovered her enthusiasm.
We can't afford to waste tears on "might-have-beens." We need to turn the tears into sweat as we go after "what-can-be."
We need to live each moment wholeheartedly, with all our senses -- finding pleasure in the fragrance of a back-yard garden, the crayoned picture of a six-year-old, the enchanting beauty of a rainbow. It is such enthusiastic love of life that puts a sparkle in our eyes, a lilt in our steps and smooths the wrinkles from our souls.
相关单词：advisers
advisers解释：顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授
advisers例句：
a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。
相关单词：jingle
jingle解释：n.叮当声，韵律简单的诗句；v.使叮当作响，叮当响，押韵
jingle例句：
The key fell on the ground with a jingle.钥匙叮当落地。
The knives and forks set up their regular jingle.刀叉发出常有的叮当声。
相关单词：scurrying
scurrying解释：v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 )
scurrying例句：
We could hear the mice scurrying
We were scurrying
相关单词：beetle
beetle解释：n.甲虫，近视眼的人
beetle例句：
A firefly is a type of beetle.萤火虫是一种甲虫。
He saw a shiny green beetle on a leaf.我看见树叶上有一只闪闪发光的绿色甲虫。
相关单词：cellist
cellist解释：n.大提琴手
cellist例句：
The cellist's bowing was very sensitive . 那位大提琴手的弓法十分细腻。 来自辞典例句
World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma founded The Silk Road Project in 1998. 世界闻名的大提琴家马友友于1998年创建了丝路工程。 来自互联网
相关单词：elixir
elixir解释：n.长生不老药，万能药
elixir例句：
There is no elixir of life in the world.世界上没有长生不老药。
Keep your mind awake and active;that's the only youth elixir.保持头脑清醒和灵活便是保持年轻的唯一灵丹妙药。
相关单词：abiding
abiding解释：adj.永久的，持久的，不变的
abiding例句：
He had an abiding love of the English countryside.他永远热爱英国的乡村。
He has a genuine and abiding love of the craft.他对这门手艺有着真挚持久的热爱。
相关单词：full-time
full-time解释：adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的
full-time例句：
A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。
相关单词：avocation
avocation解释：n.副业，业余爱好
avocation例句：
He was a printer by trade and naturalist by avocation.他从事印刷业，同时是个博物学爱好者。
Learning foreign languages is just an avocation with me.学习外语只不过是我的一项业余爱好。
相关单词：nun
nun解释：n.修女，尼姑
nun例句：
I can't believe that the famous singer has become a nun.我无法相信那个著名的歌星已做了修女。
She shaved her head and became a nun.她削发为尼。
相关单词：bouts
bouts解释：n.拳击（或摔跤）比赛( bout的名词复数 )；一段（工作）；（尤指坏事的）一通；（疾病的）发作
bouts例句：
For much of his life he suffered from recurrent bouts of depression. 他的大半辈子反复发作抑郁症。 来自《简明英汉词典》
It was one of fistiana's most famous championship bouts. 这是拳击界最有名的冠军赛之一。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
相关单词：tempted
tempted解释：v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词）
tempted例句：
I was sorely tempted to complain, but I didn't. 我极想发牢骚，但还是没开口。
I was tempted by the dessert menu. 甜食菜单馋得我垂涎欲滴。
相关单词：fragrance
fragrance解释：n.芬芳，香味，香气
fragrance例句：
The apple blossoms filled the air with their fragrance.苹果花使空气充满香味。
The fragrance of lavender filled the room.房间里充满了薰衣草的香味。
相关单词：enchanting
enchanting解释：a.讨人喜欢的
enchanting例句：
His smile, at once enchanting and melancholy, is just his father's. 他那种既迷人又有些忧郁的微笑，活脱儿象他父亲。
Its interior was an enchanting place that both lured and frightened me. 它的里头是个吸引人的地方，我又向往又害怕。
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