This week we welcome the fun words of
from . I’d heard Ellie’s name before and recognised her face beyond Substack. Ellie is the founder of The Enthusiast & Co and encourages people to be more unabashedly, unashamedly enthusiastic in a world that didn't always encourage it. Beautiful, right?I’ve since realised that Ellie and I are both part of a few business communities. We’ve probably been in the same rooms together - IRL and virtual. And, as it turns out, the work we both do points to making life feel better - with more joy, excitement and passion. Alignment in full force.
There’s a meme I love that does the rounds every so often, a screenshot of a tweet by a man named @ashymalik. It reads “i frolicked for the first time today bruh. y’all ever frolic before???? why no one ever tell me about this”, and is accompanied by four pictures of him in a black t-shirt, jeans, and beanie, the image of cutting-edge coffee shop cool, frolicking on some arid hills.
I love it because it’s true: frolicking is great and fun and joyous, but we hardly ever do it, so it’s lovely to see a grown human being embracing it whole-heartedly.
I feel like this about enthusiasm in general. Enthusiasm lights us up from the inside, helps us connect with ourselves, the people around us, and the world at large, but it’s so often frowned upon. At best, it’s seen as childlike, but all too often it’s seen as childish, as if it’s something we should have given up at the first sign of puberty, before we grew up into the Real World™.
So how do we turn ‘enthusiastic’ from a buzzword on our CV that we’re not even sure we really mean, to something we embody in our day-to-day life? First of all, we need to find it (If you already know something you’re enthusiastic about – that’s great, you can skip this step.)
A few weeks ago, Hayley posted a Substack about the book Mastery, in which she recommended turning towards your childhood to find your Life’s Task. Similarly, that’s a great place to look for inspiration for enthusiasm – how did you enjoy spending your time then? If your 8 year old self could see you now, what would they be disappointed there wasn’t more of? (These don’t have to be definable Pastimes with a capital P; for example, when my sister was younger she used to spend Saturday mornings with our family camera, filming herself doing a house tour. She now works for an estate agents.)
Alternatively, you could do some vision boarding or journalling. A couple of ways to get into it include the brilliant prompt “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” (courtesy of Liz Gilbert); and looking to people whose lives you covet. Can you pinpoint in particular what it is that you’d love to have yourself? Usually it’s not a particular thing, but what the thing represents – or, more accurately still, what it shows they’ve permitted themselves to break free from.
The next step, after doing your best Harriet The Spy work, is to think about how to incorporate it into your day-to-day life. Again, if it’s an easier-to-define Hobby with a capital H, this could be a commitment to making time for a weekly class, or even monetising it, if you want to make it your job.
If you want to keep them separate, there’s other ways to bring enthusiasm into your work without directly making your hobby your job. It can mean making themed playlists for your different offerings because you love music, or having your nail art match your new collection colours because you’re a sucker for beauty treatments.
It can mean making an individual (and, let me be clear, insane) 3D papier maché tracker for every programme launch, like my friend and podcast co-host Rachel does, because she now works in the online sphere but, as a trained set designer, always loved creating with her hands.
And, of course, there’s always the approach of just practising more enthusiasm in everyday life.
What role does enthusiasm play in your life? Is it something that resonates with you? Is it something you want to make more time for? I’d love to know what you think!
About our guest:
founded The Enthusiast & Co to encourage people to be more unabashedly, unashamedly enthusiastic in a world that didn't always encourage it. She writes , delivers keynotes, and wrote her MA dissertation on One Direction. She's also a personal branding copywriter at Eleanor Mollie, helping small business owners explain who they are, what they do, and why they're so good at it.