Try Cultivating Excitement for a More Productive Life
Making excitement a central value can give you that much-needed productivity boost.
Like most people, I like to get stuff done. But like most people, I have realized that whenever I come to review my past achievements I am never quite happy with where I am. An obvious response has always been to work on my self-discipline and time management. And that’s what I did again and again. While in theory, this approach sounds reasonable, it unfortunately never really worked out for me. This time around, I am focusing on excitement over self-discipline. Here’s why.
About two years ago, a friend came to visit me and as we were catching up on each other’s lives, I was amazed by how excited she was about her work and with how much energy and joy she pursued her projects. She routinely worked late into the night and got a lot of positive feedback from her peers and clients. Still, she also managed to socialize and go to the concerts of her favorite bands.
Her excitement was infectious.
The week after she had left was my most productive week in months. I had more energy, did not waste my evenings on YouTube as I used to, and even signed up for a new sports class. Every day I went to bed with a head full of thoughts and woke up eager to work on my projects. It was as if everything I wanted to achieve with self-discipline just came to me for free — and it even felt good! Of course, the excitement waned over time, which is normal, but I made good note of how it felt so that perhaps I could evoke it myself in the future.
Having known my friend for some time, I know that to her, just living life is the greatest thing and the energy she gets from that rarely ever leaves her. Her consistency made me confident that excitement is to some degree sustainable over longer times than just a week every couple of months. I also began to suspect that being excited is not something that just randomly happens every now and then, but something you can cultivate yourself.
I am not claiming that I have it all figured out yet. But after having mulled over the topic for some time now, and having tried multiple things to get myself excited, there are some things about excitement that seem evident to me and might help you too.
Excitement Lives in the Realm of the Possible
Excitement completely hinges on your belief that you can achieve something and that what you’re doing has an effect. This might sound like a meaningless phrase to you, but let it sink in. I’ll give you an example: if you’re working to create a product, get a degree, or a promotion and you don’t believe that you can actually achieve it — how are you supposed to get excited about it? Scientists have even found that reframing performance-anxiety as excitement — effectively moving success into the realm of what you think is possible — not only increases excitement, but also performance!
Similarly, if you don’t believe that the product you’re working on is going to get used by anyone or you feel like you won’t get a good grade regardless of how much you study for a test — how are you supposed to get excited? In the context of education, it has been shown that seeing the utility of what you do increases performance.
These beliefs of can-do and has-an-effect are grounded in self-confidence and they will be strengthened every time you take a risk and succeed. Your capability to make choices that have an effect and act upon them is called agency and has been found by scientists to improve motivation and self-regulation ability. To foster it, it is not only important to gather experience but also to consciously celebrate your successes.
Excitement is Boosted by Social Reinforcement
If you have a mentor, supervisor, or interested peers, make use of this invaluable opportunity and approach them to discuss your work, studies, or ideas. If they are willing to engage with you in a positive way, this will boost your excitement. Research confirms that even talking about a subject will increase your interest in it and that interest drives motivation. So don’t hesitate to chat up your colleagues about some project your working on or to share ideas with your friends.
We humans are social animals and interactions with our tribe have always been one of the most important (and survival-critical) things for us. It only makes sense that they have a great effect on our mindset and motivation. Another way this has manifested itself in my life is that talking to people who are excited about what they’re doing actually boosts my own excitement. Even listening to a talk or podcast of highly motivated people adds to my internal fuel. I can recommend the artstation podcast, psychology podcast, and stack overflow podcast, but what works best for you might depend on what you want to be excited about.
Having Fun Fuels Excitement
I have been mostly talking about work and studies so far, but I believe that this is not everything. The most excited people in my life have many things going on besides work: sports, music, activism, socializing, intellectual pursuits. This is why I believe that that there is a synergistic relationship between fun and work and that doing things you enjoy can help to nurture excitement and perhaps energize you for the rest of the week.
I personally found this to be true and clearly noticed that reserving some time in the evening for a creative activity results in greater excitement than mindlessly watching videos. It should be noted though, that this is purely based on my own experience, and while you can certainly find research on the association of fun and self-motivation, I can not prove to you that the positive effects of having fun carry over to other tasks (e.g. from your creative hobby to work).
Let’s Get Practical
Three things definitely helped me get more excited and perhaps they can help you too:
An excitement journal. You might be familiar with the concept of a gratitude journal, a well-researched technique to increase life satisfaction: in essence, it is just about sitting down every day and writing down a few things you’re grateful for — ideally feeling this gratitude in the process.
I decided to start doing the same thing for excitement. As I’m already journaling, it’s just a small addition to my daily routine. But just thinking about what excites me and trying to evoke this feeling makes this state of mind way more tangible.
Engaging with people. This is maybe the biggest one. Involve a mentor, peers, or colleagues in what you want to be excited about. Make sure whoever you’re talking to is positive about your work or project. Whenever you have some idle time, listen to a podcast or talk that relates to the target of your excitement or just features people passionate about their work.
Exciting activities. Planning new or fun activities gives me something to look forward to and elevates my energy. If possible for you, think about going to a concert, picking up a sport, or going on a vacation. You only have this one life and only so much time to feel alive.
To me, the idea of excitement as a driving force offered a new perspective on making the best of my life. I am aware that no one concept applies to everyone, but I hope this article can help some of you to get excited about excitement as well.
