Enthusiasm and "the God Within" | Sources of Insight

What is enthusiasm? Growing up, I associated enthusiasm with false inspiration.

As you can imagine, I wasn’t really a fan of enthusiasm.

But then I found out that enthusiasm came from the Greek word entheos, which means “the god within.”

And I learned that enthusiasm itself means an intense enjoyment, interest or approval.

Suddenly, I saw enthusiasm in a whole new light.

This is similar to when I learned that inspire is “to breathe life into,” and inspiration took on new meaning for me.

I started wondering how many people I breathe life into.

Now I am curious how people cultivate “the god within” and how they share “the god within” with others.

What is Enthusiasm?

Wikipedia defines enthusiasm as:

“Enthusiasm refers to intense enjoyment, interest, or approval expressed by a person.”

Here are a few definitions of enthusiasm from dictionaries:

Enthusiasm is an intense and eager enjoyment, interest, or approval.
Enthusiasm is a feeling of energetic interest in a particular subject or activity and an eagerness to be involved.
Enthusiasm is a strong excitement about something a strong feeling of active interest in something that you like.

Entheos is “The God Within”

In the book, Little Book of Leadership: The 12.5 Strengths of Responsible, Reliable, Remarkable Leaders that Create Results, Rewards, and Resilience, Jeffrey Gitomer writes about enthusiasm and how he changed his view on what it means.

It’s a great thing when somebody or something lights our fire.

But, it’s a lot more empowering if you create your own enthusiasm.

Gitomer writes:

“Thirty five years ago, when I heard Earl Nightingale tell me that enthusiasm came from the Greek word ‘entheos’ (which means ‘the god within’), I changed my entire thought process by realizing that I cannot rely on things or other people to create it for me.”

Spread the Lesson

Empower people to seek or create their own enthusiasm from the inside out.

Gitomer writes:

“Your job as a leader is to teach the same lesson to all of your people so that they might receive the same gift.

A gift that altered my internal enthusiasm for the better, forever.”

Enthusiasm is Contagious

Enthusiasm is contagious.

And it works both ways.

Gitomer writes:

“Enthusiasm is contagious. Either by presence or by absence.

The more enthusiastic you are as a leader, the more enthusiastic it’s likely your people will be — and the more ready and willing they will be to accept whatever task you give them.”