Life Without Excitement is Harder

One line from an executive's essay stays with me: "Life holds more hardship than not. But a life without excitement is harder still — and no fun." What makes it good is that it begins by admitting the hardship.

Those who preach excitement often look carefree; this line is the reverse — a statement of resolve to choose excitement while staring hardship in the face.

He reviewed his life divided not by income or title but into "periods of excitement" and "periods of just getting through" — and noticed that his most stable, profitable era, his own castle, was in fact his least joyful. Excitement is no privilege of the young: he recovered his childhood thrill in his forties.

It is never too late — but it never returns on its own. Excitement comes back only to those who break the routine of getting-through and step into what they have never done. Right now — are you excited, or just getting through?

What do you work for?