Here’s a question for you: What role does enthusiasm play in achieving success in any field, be it the workplace, your career, ministry, business, charity, marriage, or whatever?

The answer is simple: It plays a vital role! Enthusiasm is as vital to achieving happiness and success in any endeavour as oil is vital to the running of an engine, or water to the effective use of a bar of soap. Try washing yourself with only a bar of soap and no water. It’s like that also when trying to achieve worthy goals without enthusiasm. It just won’t happen. Your heart has to be in it, you have to be eager, and you have to believe in the possibility of what you’re aiming at. That’s what enthusiasm is.

Unfortunately, though, enthusiasm isn’t something we are born with. It needs to be developed. It needs to be first planted, and then nurtured continuously, just like a fire needs to be lit and then fed for it to keep burning. So how does one develop enthusiasm? The only way I know of is to keep your eye on the DRP, which stands for the Desired Result that you want to see Produced; in other words, the end result, the goal.

Let me give you a simple example. I was the president of the company and always came to work early. One morning on my way through the warehouse to my office I saw a mess of half-picked orders, cluttered aisles, packing materials all over the place, and so forth. All I could think was how depressing it was to come in to a workplace like this. What a lousy start to a working day! And how enthusiasm-draining! So I gathered up a bunch of brooms and mops (also sold by our company) and placed them by the entry door. As our employees came in, I shared with them my reaction to the warehouse mess, and I could see that most, if not all, felt as I had: depressed by it.

I then asked, “How would you like to leave your work every day feeling good about what you had achieved that day, good about what you had left behind you, and good about coming in the next day to a well-organized and clean workplace?” The response was unanimous: they would all like that! I then handed out the brooms, and all of us—me included—started sweeping, cleaning, and organizing the place. It took us half an hour.

What is to be noted here is that it was done with enthusiasm, as they could visualize the end result, a result that they desired: a clean and organized workplace instead of a demoralizing, messy one. And it was an activity whose result generated more enthusiasm. For the next 30 years that I was president, time was taken every day to clean and organize before quitting so that people could come in the next day with pleasure and get straight to work in an environment conducive to continued enthusiasm.

Can a simple task of sweeping be done enthusiastically? Yes, it can, if the sweeper’s DRP (desired result to be produced) is the cleanest warehouse in the park, worthy of praise and feeling good about, and if the sweeper visualizes in believes in that DRP.

Enthusiasm spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.  ―Norman Vincent Peale

Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.  —Ephesians 6:7