I recently absorbed a lecture by Hugh Hewitt, whom many know as a conservative talk radio personality. I do not agree with him on most political platforms, but he got me thinking with his recent book, “The Happiest Life.” What is the key to maintaining enthusiasm or happiness in your life? After examining the subject and key individuals who have captured enthusiasm and happiness in their life, I looked at my own life and I quickly realized that I was already making strides towards harnessing these powers myself.

Living enthusiastically is nothing more than a mindset. This is not to say that it is an easy mindset to reach for everyone. The hardest part is overcoming your ego. Your ego is the most formidable threat to your happiness. Why? Your ego is so powerful that it will convince you that your fears and weaknesses are the most important things in your life. It will tell you things like, “what if I fail,” or “what if they do not accept me.” This is very difficult to navigate through because these internal dialogues you share make you feel like they are there to protect you. I like to call this confusion that we all face, The Fog. Most of us exist with or battle with this fog on a daily basis. The first step is to shed this unnecessary confusion that can take hold of the mind. Some of you out there have already mastered this mindset, and my hat is off to you. For the rest of you, here is the good news.

When you remove the fog, you will find that your mind is unlocked to redeem your peak potential. Now you will start to feel all of your worries, all of your fears, and all of those things that used to keep you up at night, begin to dissipate. When these irrational thoughts are removed from the mind, you will immediately feel empowered. When you are empowered, you will find a sense of enthusiasm or happiness that is different than any enthusiasm than you have ever experienced before. What makes this newfound enthusiasm, which also translates to happiness so different? It will last as long as you remember to remove the fog and perform basic maintenance. Put simply, it is an everlasting mindset.

One key difference you will notice is that you will find yourself surrounding yourself with those who share your enthusiasm, happiness or passions. This will seem to happen almost organically. I like to call this surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals. As I stated before, this will happen organically or naturally, like-minded people tend to be attracted to each other. At your core you will stay enthusiastic and seek out people who live their lives the same way. Every person that I have examined, whether on campus or off campus, have proved this theory overwhelmingly. The smartest minds in math, science, art, writing, or any industry will gravitate towards each other. There is an old adage, iron sharpens iron. Well, happiness and enthusiasm coexist and amplify each other.

Now that you have a blueprint for finding happiness and harnessing enthusiasm, you must take it a step further. This is the maintenance portion of this formula. Performing maintenance is just as critical a point as removing the fog. You must find your passions, follow them, work on them and put them into action. Whatever your passion may be, you must chase it with your newfound enthusiasm.