Reawaken Your Vitality

The art of living for your enjoyment and why it's more simple than you might think

Earlier this week, I attended a networking event for salespeople in Phoenix. I was a bit exhausted that day and that had me a bit worried, thinking to myself “Dang, this is going to be a room full of salespeople who are all going to be super outgoing and energetic, I better be on my A game”.

When I arrived, I was surprised that nearly everyone I spoke to seemed to have low energy. They were just going through the motions, in my eyes. We would ask each other what we do and what we sell, and I wasn’t getting that “vibe” you tend to get from salespeople.

So I thought, sure, maybe they didn’t like where they worked so they couldn’t get passionate about telling me about it. Fair enough. So I started asking people my favorite question to ask when meeting new people because how they answer will usually tell me a lot about them: “Not including your job, what do you do to find enjoyment”?

Almost everyone I asked paused here… and to my disappointment, many said something along the lines of “watching” something. Whether that was sports or television.

No one’s eyes lit up to fill me in about how they love to paint, exercise, play an instrument, or hang out with their family… Just watch others do interesting things.

As tired as I was going into the event, I felt energized leaving it because as I would ask this question, out of politeness I’m sure, people would ask it back. I would then start going on about how Maddie and I have this great newsletter, how we enjoy gardening and being outdoors, and how much I love to hunt. 

Sharing these things with people was like pouring gasoline on the flicker of energy I had going into the event, and by the end of the night, I felt energized and excited, just from sharing what I was passionate about.

But it also got me thinking about how many people you meet in your daily life lack a sense of excitement about their lives, also known as, vitality. 

The roots of vitality

When someone approaches life with excitement, and energy, and sees everything they do as an adventure to be fully experienced, you can feel it. We all know these types of people, where even when you are having a down day, they seem to be able to “activate” you to be more excited about whatever it is you’re doing. 

This is vitality. People who present a lot of it are most highly correlated with being generally happy and having good well-being. This spirit they carry around manifests itself in being productive and making those around them more productive in whatever pursuit they engage in. 

Have you ever had a manager who was always excited about mundane tasks or a coach who would lose their mind in excitement, even in practice? Think about how working or playing for those coaches made you feel compared to others on the other end of the spectrum.

These are the kind of people who lead winning teams because the excitement is infectious and bleeds into everyone else around them.

They make you feel like what you are doing is important and has purpose to it, and that is the central tenant to vitality: to feel like you and your actions matter and have a greater purpose.

This isn’t a new concept, however. History’s greatest leaders have always exuded great vitality. The very concept of vitality even goes back to Eastern philosophies and healing traditions. 

For example, the ancient Chinese concept of Chi, the Japanese notion of Ki, the Balinese notion of Bayu, and the Indian notion of Prana all refer to an underlying life energy or force that flows through living things and is the basis of life and health. 

Ancient health practices from acupuncture to yoga focus on manipulating and increasing this life energy and making you feel more alive. I’ve personally never done things like acupuncture, but Maddie has and I can recall her coming back telling me how much more energized she’s felt afterward, for example. I believe this is why even lifting weights tends to make people feel more energized.

In the West, psychologists such as Freud and Jung incorporated the notion of life energy into their theories of mental health (and illness). For example, when people are dealing with conflict, stress, or sadness, they are usually less “enjoyable” to be around because it bleeds into everything and everyone around them.

Studies have shown an increased vitality in nursing home residents who had constant visitors or at the very least, many friends within the home. Inversely, nursing home residents without friends or family visitors tended to suffer worse outcomes. We talked a bit about this in our article on why French people tended to live longer than Americans, where having a strong social circle correlates to a longer and more vibrant life. 

This isn’t exactly surprising, but it does explain why cultures who tend to take care of their parents longer into their old age, tend to live longer, healthier lives.

Increasing your vitality

This almost feels funny to write, because it’s so intuitive. Increasing your vitality and excitement for life is one of the easiest things to do of everything we recommend, but maybe even the hardest in some ways.

For example, do something because you want to do it, not because you have to do it. Sure there are a lot of things that you “have” to do, but a simple mindset switch can make a world of difference. “I want to vacuum because how freakin cool would it be to have a clean house”! Instead of, “I don’t feel like vacuuming but I have to do it”. Or “I need to exercise because I need to lose weight” vs. “I can’t wait to move my body today because it’s fun”.

Even when it comes to things you’re passionate about - Do them more! Go out of your way to plan it into your schedule. 

Ask yourself the question “What do I like to do for fun that brings me joy and excitement” If you can’t answer it yet, start trying new things that you’ve always wanted to try until you come across the thing that brings you that sense of vitality. Or better yet, think back to the things you liked to do as a kid - Try doing that again now.

I’ve told this story before but this is how I rediscovered my passion for the outdoors a few years back. As a kid, I loved to be out fishing, camping, and dreaming about hunting. Living in New York City, constantly stressed and running around trying to make the next dollar caused me low vitality until I finally just decided, hey, you know what I want to do that stuff I did as a kid again.

Maddie and I on a hike - A simple, yet exciting activity that we do together

Take action: Here are some quick tips to increase your vitality.

1. Rediscover your passions as I explained above. Reconnect with your inner child

2. Social media/negativity detox: Remember what I said being around negative people can do to your vitality above? Well, the same goes for following consuming or being around negative people and materials. There’s a lot of shit going on in the world that would make anyone sad. I’m not saying to not care, but you should give yourself a break from consuming this sort of stuff. Especially when it’s out of your control.

3. Find your community: This is one of the primary reasons we created this newsletter and are planning exciting things down the line for this community. In a world that’s more connected digitally than ever before, we are also extremely disconnected from being around others who bring us joy and have a lot in common.

4. Ask yourself the question: “What makes me feel alive and excited”? Find ways to plan more of that into your schedule. Simple? Yeah. That’s the beauty of it.

-Sebastian

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PS: Maddie and I would love to get to know you better. We want to learn more about how we can best serve you with our newsletter. Schedule free time to chat with us here. We look forward to meeting you!

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