Too Much Enthusiasm

Years ago, while I was living in California, there was a saying: “Curb your enthusiasm.”

It’s an important saying to know when doing business. Sometimes you can get so excited about what you’re doing or offering that you make foolish decisions.

Happens all the time.

My friend Kim Wood, an NFL strength coach for 27 years, points out: “An animal on the attack is cautious almost to the point of cowardice.”

Fascinating, eh?

Picture a cheetah running 70 mph after a deer or antelope. He doesn’t appear to be cautious at all. Yet prior to that 70 mph burst, the cheetah had very carefully stalked his prey and scoped out the terrain. He does not simply take off on a sprint as soon as he’s hungry.

So the key to enthusiasm is balance. Same with confidence.

There’s confidence and over-confidence. There’s enthusiasm and over-enthusiasm.

Conversely, there is under-enthusiasm and under-confidence. I think most people who are struggling fall into the “under” category. They don’t need to curb their enthusiasm. They need to unleash it.

Enthusiasm for what you do and what you’re attempting to do is a cornerstone of success. Without it, you cannot accomplish much. As Emerson wrote, “Nothing great was ever accomplished without enthusiasm.”

At the same time, being too enthusiastic, too confident, and too positive can hurt you. It’s a matter of balance.

When I was studying shuai jiao kung fu years ago, Dr. Daniel Weng once told me, “A strength overextended becomes a weakness.”

How true.

And lest you think this applies only to martial arts – think again. It applies to everything you do in life. It also applies to every virtue.

Even love.

[Ed. Note: Matt Furey, an internationally recognized expert in self-development, fitness, and martial arts, is president of the Psycho-Cybernetics Foundation, Inc. With Matt’s 101 Ways to Magnetize Money, you can learn the REAL SECRETS of financial success known only to the most prosperous men and women who have ever lived. Find out more right here.]