ETHOS (Part 4): Enthusiasm | Jake Haber

What if enthusiasm wasn’t just a fleeting mood but a sacred value?

 

In Part 4 of our ETHOS series, we explore enthusiasm as a signpost of the divine, a compass pointing toward our unique path in the world. From the root meanings of words like enthusiasm (“en-theo” – filled with God), inspire (“in-spirit”), and ecstatic (“to stand outside oneself”), we uncover the deep spiritual undercurrents behind that feeling of aliveness that pulls us forward, often beyond comfort, into courage.

 

This message unpacks how true enthusiasm arises not from status or certainty, but from soulful connection between ourselves and something greater. We look at what it means to live a life of purpose, to feel something whispering to us, calling us, even amidst fear, practicality, and the noise of the world.

 

What makes you come alive? And can you follow it, not just for your own fulfillment, but because the world desperately needs people who are lit up from within?

 

Quotes:

 

 

1. Paramahansa Yogananda:

   “Enthusiasm is the greatest asset in all circumstances. It is more important than money, power, or status.”

2. Sufi Proverb:

   “I searched for God and found only myself. I searched for myself and found only God.”

3. Bayazid Bastami:

   “I went from God to God until they cried from me in me: ‘O you I!’”

4. Meister Eckhart:

   “The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me.”

5. David Whyte:

   “The price of our vitality is the sum of all our fears.”

6. Anaïs Nin:

   “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”

7. Brené Brown:

   “If you’re not in the arena getting your ass kicked, I’m not interested in your feedback.”

8. Howard Thurman:

   “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

9. Joseph Campbell:

   “Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.”

10. St. Ignatius of Loyola:

    “Go forth and set the world on fire.”