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Why Enthusiasm Matters
00:07:24
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| I mean, you know, I've been doing this since 1999 that, you know, it's almost 20 years of happiness hours. | |
| That's 20 times, that's 20, it's 1,000, right? | |
| 20 times 50 is 1,000? | |
| Yeah. | |
| So it's 1,000 hours. | |
| Now, I've obviously repeated topics, and it's important that I do. | |
| So I didn't do 1,000 topics, but I must have done 300 topics, 400 topics. | |
| It's amazing. | |
| Anyway, this one, so I was going to have the living martyrs say some words, but we spoke during the break, and I got his input. | |
| And it is, so I want to add something, because this is a very big deal. | |
| And it was triggered by the very end of this very long biography I just finished of Winston Churchill. | |
| And it spoke about his very many enthusiasms, and the one in this case was butterflies, which he had collected all over the world. | |
| And, you know, I have that temperament. | |
| I get very enthusiastic about very many things, and it's a major source of my happiness. | |
| So I have the ongoing question of, what if it's not your nature? | |
| Can you develop enthusiasms? | |
| Well, there's only one way to know. | |
| Try it and find out. | |
| How do you know that you're not enthusiastic about X or Y or Z? You have to give it a try. | |
| Is that all right? | |
| Are we fixed now? | |
| So, you don't know. | |
| It's fascinating. | |
| My stepson is extremely talented in building things, anything almost, and in IT. I mean, he's just gifted. | |
| It's clear. | |
| These things come to him. | |
| He's an autodidact. | |
| He's learned all of this. | |
| And he's making a serious income based on what he's taught himself. | |
| And you know how it started? | |
| He's been in my life much of his life. | |
| It started in high school when he didn't get, I forgot what he had requested, the class filled up. | |
| So he was given, he was just simply put in set building, a set building class for plays that the students would put on. | |
| It was the last thing in his life he thought he would be interested in. | |
| And that changed his life. | |
| He has such a gift for building. | |
| And then for IT and for electronics. | |
| I mean, that whole world. | |
| Everything related to it. | |
| You have to expose yourself and try to get enthusiastic. | |
| It doesn't just fall down on you. | |
| I knew this. | |
| I was very lucky. | |
| I had wisdom as a kid. | |
| I take no credit for it. | |
| I just had it. | |
| I was given it and I had it. | |
| In high school, I knew I want to be enthusiastic about a lot of things, excluding high school. | |
| And I even, I'll never forget, I had no interest in ballet. | |
| I subscribed for a year to the New York City Ballet. | |
| And it turned out I still had no interest in ballet. | |
| But I was proud of myself. | |
| I spent the money, and I gave it a try. | |
| I was crazy about classical music. | |
| That started because of the same thing. | |
| I didn't know I would like classical music. | |
| I mean, you just don't know. | |
| Maybe it'll be butterflies for you. | |
| Maybe building. | |
| Carpentry. | |
| But enthusiasms, the more the merrier. | |
| Now, here is the problem. | |
| Because everything comes with a problem. | |
| The living martyr raised this during the break. | |
| Okay, so Dennis, he said, he saith to me, what if the enthusiasm is video games? | |
| Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with video games. | |
| You know, you play it an hour or so a day, you know, everybody has their diversion. | |
| Okay, fine. | |
| But when it becomes an enthusiasm, And it doesn't have inherent... | |
| I don't think video games have much inherent worth. | |
| I'm not saying they're bad. | |
| Let me make that clear. | |
| It's like I play hearts. | |
| I admit it doesn't have any inherent worth. | |
| But it's a diversion. | |
| Gotcha. | |
| I understand people need that and so on. | |
| But I wouldn't say Hearts is one of my enthusiasms. | |
| I would say it's a diversion. | |
| It's a fun diversion. | |
| It's not an enthusiasm. | |
| I don't think about it when I'm not doing it. | |
| I can go any length of time without it. | |
| But I like it when I can play it. | |
| It's a nice diversion while I'm writing an article. | |
| Take a break. | |
| Play a game of Hearts. | |
| Two games of Hearts. | |
| So that's different. | |
| I don't consider diversion and enthusiasm quite the same thing. | |
| People are enthusiastic about gambling. | |
| I mean, you know, you can get worse. | |
| I'm not against gambling, if you do it for fun. | |
| If you're a serious gambler, it's a very serious problem. | |
| So, I obviously understand there are enthusiasms and there are enthusiasms. | |
| Okie dokie! | |
| Let's go! | |
| Two calls here. | |
| Detroit, Michigan, Karen. | |
| Hi, Karen. | |
| Dennis Prager. | |
| Hi, Mr. Prager. | |
| Pleasure to speak with you. | |
| Thank you. | |
| I was really lucky because I had wise parents, and they kind of forced us to have enthusiasm because any time, first of all, they required a certain amount of reading, and we've all become very enthusiastic readers. | |
| They required us to choose. | |
| A hobby, whether it be dance, music, whatever, and try it for at least a season. | |
| Then if you wanted to change to something else, you could, but you had to do something. | |
| And we've all developed different things that we enjoy. | |
| But we grew up having to do that. | |
| So I absolutely think that it's something that can be acquired and taught to someone. | |
| Obviously better if you're at a young age. | |
| I did it with my daughter. | |
| She's doing it with her children. | |
| And we all do have things that we're really passionate about. | |
| That's great. | |
| You know what? | |
| Thank you. | |
| By the way, that does remind me why I am so opposed to so much homework. | |
| It's one of the many reasons I can't stand this movement to massive homework. | |
| It dulls the child's world. | |
| What enthusiasm are they going to build with more math homework? | |
| That's exactly right. | |
| Back in a moment. | |