Enthusiasm is a beautiful word, originating from the Greek words, enthousiazein meaning possessed by God and entheos meaning God inspired. Its literal translation then, is ‘God in us’. And the last four letters of Enthusiasm (IASM) are an acronym for I Am Sold Myself. Having enthusiasm about something, whether it’s a concept or a product or even another person, means just that, I am sold myself, hook, line and sinker! With that kind of enthusiasm and belief comes a Godly power that makes impossible things happen. As Jesus said, “Everything is possible for him who believes.” (Mark 9:23). Let me illustrate the point:

The bumblebee is one of the most enthusiastic fellows around. During the summer months, the bee is one the earliest to rise in the morning and one of the last to bed at night. All day long he remains focused on his objective, collecting nectar from flowers, to make honey. Throughout the long summer days, bees can fly up to 1000 miles (1600 km) a week, which is quite a feat, when you consider that on average a bumblebee is only about 1 inch (2.5 cm) long. The truly amazing fact though, is that a bee shouldn’t be able to fly at all. I’ve read that scientific evidence is now overwhelming, pointing to the fact that a bumblebee can’t fly. Its wings are a disproportionate size to its body – they’re too small and too light. Its body is too round and fat and heavy. Its shape is not at all aerodynamic. The plain fact is it should be impossible for a bumblebee to fly, never mind it being able to hover over a flower to collect nectar!

So then, how does our enthusiastic friend do it? How does he achieve the impossible? Well, for my thinking and put simply, when God created the bumblebee He forgot to tell him that he couldn’t fly! In other words, the bee doesn’t know any better. The bumblebee doesn’t concentrate on all the reasons why he can’t do it – he just gets on and does it … with enthusiasm.

Let me encourage you, then, to follow the example of the bumblebee. Get up early, work hard and without complaining, remain focused on your objective, go the extra mile and be enthusiastic. Do this and the results will always take care of themselves!

R. Ian Seymour

R. Ian Seymour, adapted from Maximize Your Potential