I hate Enthusiasm. Is it really for every one?

If I have a lack of enthusiasm, is there something wrong with me?

Everyone talks about the benefits of positive thinking. Everyone wants to be more enthusiastic. Enthusiasm is awesome. Right? Even according to science, there are actual studies showing that positive and enthusiastic people are seen as more attractive than those who aren’t.

Everyone loves enthusiasm, don’t they?

Have you ever noticed that enthusiastic people tend to assume that everybody else is enthusiastic as well? Have you ever had someone try to encourage you, but really all they did was make you feel worse? Do people look at you funny when you say you’re not excited by something that everybody else seems to be looking forward to?

Don’t worry, it’s not just you. Some of us are just less enthusiastic than others. In fact some us find actually find enthusiasm to be a little bit annoying…

For example…

One time (many, many years ago), I was participating in a long distance running event for a school function, somewhat against my will. And since I didn’t even want to be there, it follows that I had no enthusiasm for the event whatsoever.

At some point towards the end of the race, I had long since given up running and was walking around the rest of the track at a leisurely, despondent pace. My legs hurt, my lungs burned, I was positively miserable, and I didn’t want to be there anyway.

However, several of my well meaning classmates decided to cheer me on in a fruitless attempt to encourage me to keep running. Their cheers of encouragement and shouts to keep going, not only didn’t work, but actually made me less enthusiastic and even more annoyed.

I did not keep running. I did not enjoy it. And did not regret my decision.

Now I know that I am somewhat of a natural curmudgeon and this sort of thing is not exactly uncommon for me. My temperament leans towards the disagreeable (which might have something to do with it) and I don’t think anybody who knows me would call me an optimist. But the fact that everybody puts so much stock in enthusiasm, actually really annoys me.

So that got me thinking, what exactly is enthusiasm, and why do some of us have less of it than others?

In today’s modern world, which heavily encourages a positive outlook, there are many kindhearted and well meaning people who say positive and peppy things in an attempt to encourage and motivate the indolent masses. But occasionally, optimism, enthusiasm and motivational speeches, just make some of us annoyed.

Now, understanding human psychology can be a tricky, and sometimes vague business. Many different theories abound as to why certain people act in certain ways, and where those pesky emotions keep coming from. So defining things like enthusiasm and other related concepts, can be somewhat hard to do without reading a dozen different psychological studies.

But since that’s exactly what I did, lets check out some definitions.

If you ask the dictionary, or more likely Google, the definition of enthusiasm is the following:

“intense and eager enjoyment, interest, or approval.”

If you ask the American Psychological Association the definition is somewhat similar:

“a feeling of excitement or passion for an activity, cause, or object.”

In psychology, from what I’ve seen, the studies exploring enthusiasm mostly look at it from two different angles.

1. Enthusiasm as an emotion.

2. Enthusiasm as a personality trait.

And I’m pretty sure, I’m short on both.

This particular study that I found, (no doubt there are many more), studied enthusiasm as an emotional response, revealing that “enthusiasm occurs in pleasurable, intense situations linked to desired goals”. It is associated with feeling more in control and less uncertain over a situation, and is marked by smiling, a feeling of fulfilment and having positive thoughts.

The emotion is distinct from both joy and hope, though they are similar. Someone is who enthusiastic is more eager than someone who is joyful, and more willing to take risks and join some sort of movement. They are also more inclined to take immediate action than someone who is hopeful, and spend less time thinking about possible negative outcomes.

Enthusiasm also seems to be related to the active pursuit of goals. As the emotion is felt when goals are seen as with reach, and that taking immediate action will help them achieve those goals, encouraging a proactive approach. In comparison, hope is felt when goals are distant and uncertain, and joy is felt after a goal is completed. Enthusiasm helps drive people to achieve their goals.

The personality approach considers enthusiasm to be heavily related to the personality trait known as Extroversion, one of the Big 5 Personalty traits of psychology. The extroversion trait in personality psychology is related to how high energy or outgoing someone is especially in social situations. People high in extroversion may seek out novel experiences, or feel bored if they spend too much time alone.

While in most cases, enthusiasm is not officially listed as one of the 6 sub facets that make up the domain of Extroversion, the two are highly related. Extroverted people being as described as full of energy and positive emotions, who are enthusiastic and action oriented individuals who are highly engaged with the world.

Extroversion has long been associated with Enthusiasm, and various other positive emotions. With Extroversion being known as the positive emotion trait, indicating how likely a person is experience positive emotions.

A person low in extroversion, also known as an introvert, may be less likely to experience such positive emotions, be more risk averse, less exuberant and energetic, and desire more time alone, preferring quiet solitary activities, that do not over stimulate them. In fact the groups may sometimes clash with each other, with the extrovert’s high energy and enthusiasm being too much for the introvert to handle.

Sound familiar?

So enthusiasm is an emotional response to specific situations. And lets say, the likelihood of you experiencing those emotions may be at least partly determined by your personality. But is it just your personality? If you don’t feel enthusiastic, were you just born that way, or is there perhaps something wrong with you?

A quick google search on “no enthusiasm” will likely lead you to a dozen different pages about various conditions and mental health illnesses you may be struggling with that might be the cause of your lack of enthusiasm.

These include but are not limited to:

• burnout
• poor health
• lack of sleep
• vitamin deficiency
• poor diet
• not getting enough sunlight (yes people still need sunlight)
• not getting enough exercise
• stress and fatigue
• apathy
• low blood sugar
• substance use
• hyperthyroidism
• depression and anxiety

Just to name a few (I swear I even saw one article somewhere linking it to Alzheimer’s disease).

Now, all these conditions are well worth considering if you’re having problems in the lack of enthusiasm department. These are especially good to think about if you’ve recently experienced a change in your levels of enthusiasm, and now don’t find yourself enjoying the things you used to, especially if this has been going on for some time. For example, if a favourite pastime of yours, or a treat you’ve been looking forward to for some time no longer interests you, then perhaps you ought to consider the above list.

I know from personal experience that some of, what we might consider more minor problems, can have a big impact on our emotions and our mental state and may be contributing to a general lack of enthusiasm.

And the good thing is you can think about many of these things yourself without needing to go a professional if some reason you can’t go to a doctor, or the idea of seeing someone because you’re feeling a bit blue sounds kind of dumb (it isn’t dumb, but we’ve all been there, some of us more than others).

If you or a person you know seems to be feeling a bit more down, flat, blue or generally not quite like themselves as they used to, it may be good to consider the following.

• How’s your diet?

Have you been living on nothing but bread and noodles for the last few weeks? Maybe some vegetables and proteins might be in order to shake things up a bit, and make sure you’re not deficient of any vitamins.

• Have you eaten enough?

Did you have breakfast? Have you eaten recently, or is your seemingly depressed state mostly because you forgot to eat lunch and you’re really just hangry?

• Are you getting enough sleep?

While the answer to this question is probably ‘no’ for most of us, not getting enough sleep is a serious concern and has dramatic effects on both mood and wider health concerns, especially if it goes on for too long.

• Are you seeing enough sunlight?

This is another one many adults, myself included, are all too guilty of ignoring, especially in the colder, darker months of the year. However as much as we sometimes forget that getting sunlight is important, it most definitely is. Not only can not getting enough sunlight lead to vitamin D deficiency, it can also lead to a variety of other serious health concerns.

• Is it your hormones?

Hormones are not to be overlooked. For those of us with hormone cycles and sometimes even imbalances to worry about, the levels of these chemicals in your body can have a massive impact on your mood and a whole bunch of other things. So before you freak out, thinking you’re dying of a vitamin deficiency, as yourself if your hormones could be the cuprit.

• How’re your activity levels?

You all know the drill, moving around is good for you. If you haven’t been doing much at that lately, it might be affecting your mood. If nothing else, going for a walk will probably help you improve your mood, even if there are other things going on.

• Has your schedule been disrupted?

Sometimes, even things such as staying up later than we normally would, or needing to wake up extra early can lead to our natural rhythms getting a bit out of whack. Whether it be because of a disruption at home, or some new work thing that’s affecting your schedule, or heck, even Daylight savings, even small disruptions in our schedules can wreak havoc on our mood. While this won’t affect everybody, some of us are more sensitive to our schedules being disrupted than others.

• Are you taking any medication that may effect your mood?

Another one that sometimes gets overlooked, is that if your taking any medication, especially if it’s new and you haven’t been on it for long, changes to mood and other things may be one of the side effects, and may well contribute to a lack of enthusiasm.

• Illness and allergies

Have been feeling under the weather lately? Are your allergies or intolerances playing up? As simple as these can be, if you haven’t been feeling your best it makes sense for your mood to be affected as well. Give your body time to recover, and hopefully your mood will as well.

• Have you been stressed out or overworking yourself?

This one gets mentioned a lot these days in the form of burnout, which is a serious problem for many people, especially with the busy lives we all have and often not leaving ourselves enough time to rest. While there’s not always anything you do about it, if you’ve got something stressful going on at work, don’t forget to rest while you can.

• Has something bad happened?

This one feels similar to burnout, but it’s worth considering especially if you’re trying to figure out why somebody else looking less enthusiastic than they usually are. If there’s been some bad news in their personal life, a health concern, or some family crisis for example, it is understandable that they might not be feeling their normal chipper self.

• Check the weather.

Is it a thing, the weather can have an impact on your mood. For example, some people get more down when it rains, or you may be one of the many people who experiences something more serious like Seasonal Affect Disorder. Or perhaps you’re just staring at the rain and thinking about that load of washing you forgot to take in this morning.

• Is it there a full moon?

This one sounds weird, but I promise it’s not a joke. While there’s less evidence for this one, many people have noticed that sometimes things, both technology and people can sometimes go a bit weird around the full moon, especially if there are hormones involved. And I’m not talking werewolves here, but trust me, sometimes it happens.

There are more serious things and conditions that can affect your emotions and cause something like enthusiasm to fall, including Depression, Anxiety, and Vitamin deficiency, Hyperthyroidism, and things relating to blood sugar, as well as many others things like various mood disorders or hormone conditions.

Now listening to health advice from some random person on the internet is not always the best idea… But it is absolutely a good idea to see someone if you or your loved ones are concerned. If your worried about your low moods, having a hard time with your emotions, or worry something else serious might be going on, by all means see a doctor about it. I am not giving medical advise, but in most cases a general doctor is often the place start to start.

Yes, our habits and our health affect our moods, and must be considered. But just because you’re not feeling enthusiastic, positive or as excited about life as everyone around you, doesn’t mean than there’s anything necessarily wrong with you.

Now as I said, your health and habits might be a contributing factor especially if your emotions and moods are changing. But it’s also possible that you’re just like me, and are born with a personality that doesn’t tend towards the positive.

I know from my own experiences that while my negative swings might get worse if I haven’t slept well, or I’m not getting enough sunlight, or my hormones are playing havoc with my moods this week, but I also know that I’m not like my sunny and bubbly friends and don’t tend to excited about the same things.

The idea of running in a race and helping my team secure a win does not excite me.

The idea of going out to a party or an event with lots of other people does not excite me.

The idea of striking up a conversation with a stranger down the street does not excite me.

Most things involving other people don’t excite me, in fact most of them kind of scare me. I’m not usually motivated by rewards, positive reinforcement or even peer pressure. I don’t like to do things that other people do just because my friends are doing them. And I’d rather go a long walk by myself, than spend time with people doing something I don’t want to do. There is a long long list of things I have no interest in whatsoever, and that’s fine.

But this doesn’t mean I don’t get excited at all.

I have my own things that I get enthusiastic about, like when I finally get time to work on a project I’ve wanted to do for ages, or I find a book I’ve been looking for in a second hard store, or that show I want to watch finally gets released, or when someone asks me a question about one of my highly specific and slightly bizarre interests.

All this logically tells me, that if you are feeling a lack of enthusiasm about a particular thing, here are a few reasons why it could be.

• It’s not lined up with your personal goals or interests.

Since enthusiasm is an emotion we feel in the active pursuit of a goal, it stands to reason that if you don’t have a goal that you feel the activity would lead to, you’re not going to be particularly excited out it.

• You feel too uncertain about the outcomes, or it feels out of your control.

Or perhaps it is in your interests and aligned with your goals, but you don’t feel that sense of control or certainty about the outcomes of the activity. In which case you might be too preoccupied with thoughts of negative outcomes, worrying about what might happen, to get very enthusiastic about it.

• It’s too social or overly stimulating.

If you lean heavily toward the introvert side of the personality scale you’re likely going to have a lack of enthusiasm about activities that are overly stimulating or involve lots of people, or sometimes any people at all.

• You’re in a bad mood.

Or perhaps you’re just in a bad mood. You didn’t sleep well last night, have other things going on that are worrying you, your hormones are up the creek this week, or that guy at work wont stop leaving you alone, and you’re just feeling generally more negative.

People who have a lack of enthusiasm, whether that be due to some illness, other less serious condition, or just their personality, have various struggles to deal with, particularly in a world that always seems to promote positivity and enthusiasm above all else.

And there’s nothing wrong with being positive and enthusiastic.

Many of us would like to be more positive more or the time. But as someone who does tend towards the negative, it often does annoy me when people try to get to me cheer up or be more enthusiastic about something that I know I’m not going to enjoy.

Just because I lack of enthusiasm, doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with me.

If I have a lack of enthusiasm about something, you might consider that’s there’s a good reason for it.

Life is tough for everyone in one way or another. Even positive people will have good days and bad days. No personality is any better than another, we’re all just different.

Now throughout life, there are many circumstances in which we have to do things that we aren’t excited about, and sadly, you can’t always avoid doing things just because you don’t want to. Now, how to motivate someone who has a lack of enthusiasm to do something they don’t want to do is a different kettle of fish. But just telling someone to be more positive, try harder, or look on the bright side, usually isn’t the answer.

It might be hard for some people to believe but sometimes, I actually don’t want to be more positive or enthusiastic about something. Call me a curmudgeon, but it’s true.

If you want to try and change your attitudes and take up a more positive way of looking at things there are certainly ways to do it, and there’s nothing wrong with that either. But I caution against trying to change just because somebody else told you to. Life is full of people who give unsolicited advice, so here’s mine.

Have a think about yourself, your own moods, attitudes and emotions, and then decide what you want to do. Don’t just go with the flow because some person on the internet told you to. It’s your life.

Much of this article is taken from my own personal experiences, and from things I’ve heard from others, and in places it is supplemented by research. This is not an exhaustive account. I do not profess to be an expert, and I could of course be completely wrong about everything.

Feel free to let me know what you think I’m wrong about in the comments below.

Lack of enthusiasm aside, if you’re still here, thanks for reading! If you like this article please subscribe to my newsletter with the form in the footer below. I would also love it if you shared this article with someone you think would like would find it helpful.

If you feel like some hillarious sarcastic humour to brighten up your otherwise unenthusiastic day, please check out my products. I’m particularly proud of this one.

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