It's Monday morning. Does this describe you?

Instead of looking forward to the week, you are looking forward to Friday. You may actually dread the work week so much that the negativity spills over into your personal life.

The interesting thing is that you may like your job, or most aspects. It may seem as if there is a perpetual cloud hanging over you as you start your day or some aspect of the job.

What is missing from your emotional life? It may be that you need a good dose of enthusiasm. Think back on a time when you were focused on an endeavor and you were actually invigorated, or, at the very least, you felt a sense of fulfillment.

What makes the difference? It is a sense of enthusiasm that leads to the feeling of excitement about being involved in or completing the task.

There may be several reasons for the lack of enthusiasm about an activity. However, there is only one way to gain enthusiasm and that is to make a decision to actually be enthusiastic. Is it possible to actually gain enthusiasm? Absolutely!!

If you were asked to perform a certain boring activity you might agree to do it, but without enthusiasm. However, if you were told that there would be public recognition or financial reward when you finished, it is probable that you would become enthusiastic about it. Why?

When you make a decision to tackle a project with enthusiasm, it may meet one of your self-esteem or emotional needs.

If you feel only slightly enthusiastic about an activity, you can actually increase your enthusiasm by just making a decision to become more so. It is as simple as increasing the temperature in your "enthusiasm oven" from 150 degrees to 475 degrees by deciding and then taking action.

Note that I said it was simple, but I did not say it was easy. It takes disciplined thinking and a commitment to be more enthusiastic.

When you next experience a lackluster feeling about your job or some aspect of your life, remember what it felt like when you were enthusiastic and really "cooking" during another project.

Choose to experience that feeling again and mentally choose to feel excited about what you are doing now.

By choosing how you want to feel about something and then cultivating and maintaining that feeling, you can feel power-filled and happy. It is up to you to choose the operating temperature in everything that you do.

After a week of being captives by the weather (not really, I worked every day but Monday and Tuesday), we were busy over the weekend.  Saturday morning I attended Sports Fest put on by 104.5 our advertiser.  Saturday afternoon my 90 year old Aunt had a birthday celebration in Eagleville and Ande, Carolyn and I went to that.  Sunday morning our Church's main campus was closed because the parking lots were like an ice rink.  So we went to our new satellite Church at Avenue South and really enjoyed the contemporary service there.

Then since we had missed our long run Saturday morning we met our running team Sunday afternoon for a 6 miler.