THE GIFT OF ENTHUSIASM





“If you can gift your son or daughter only one gift –
let it be enthusiasm.”

Bruce Barton

Why only to son or daughter?  Most of us know what a valuable gift enthusiasm is. So, be it our students, employees or associates – for that matter, anyone who comes in contact with us - gifting away enthusiasm is one of the most empowering acts you and I can carry out.

By the way, does it work other way round, too? Do our young sons and daughters, our students, associates and employees, too, gift us enthusiasm?

I believe, they do.

Just as parents gift their children, teachers gift their students and employers gift their employees this valuable gift – enthusiasm, children, students and employees, too, gift their counterparts the same. So, it works from both the ends. Because, on both the ends, there live humans… They all need to be charged… enthused!

As a teacher, I have survived for over four decades, not only due to my own enthusiasm, I have survived also due to my students’ enthusiasm. While, my own enthusiasm, undoubtedly, has charged thousands of students over these years, I must place on record this fact: without getting charged by my own students, I would have experienced flat-tyres long time ago!

Just today, while a group of my students got the best out of me through their enthusiasm, another group of my students got the worst. I am not telling this with a sense of disdain. But, my frequent attempts to make them see this point unsuccessfully have given me this experience. These kids may be teenagers and I may be a senior citizen at 62; but, our hearts are fueled by the same ignition: enthusiasm.

What makes one group enthusiastic and the other lifeless? I can only think of one reason: Some hearts are ready and some are not. Probably Jesus’ Parable of the Sower explains this factor…

“A farmer went out to sow his seed.  As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.  Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.  Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop - a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”






The farmer is the same… the seeds are the same… Only the soil makes the difference, Sir!


GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: pixabay.com

Video: CBSN


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