Your Zest for Life

Recently I’ve been asked several times, how do I keep so motivated? Upon reflection, my reply is that I don’t put too much extra effort into it … it’s simply about applying a few basic principals as I‘ll share here. Also, I cover these in much more detail in my upcoming on-line ‘Awakening-Awareness’ course.

The first principle is about being aware of our ‘Zest’ for life!

Your ‘Zest’ may be said to be almost a magical quality … living life with a sense of adventure, excitement … being motivated in facing challenging situations and being in love with life! To put in in a much more simple way, when we have ‘Zest’ we’re living a better life!

Furthermore, I suggest that our zest is a measure, a reflection and indication of our vitality. Our vitality is essentially what moves us, lifts us up, propels us forward and gives us the stamina to breakthrough our barriers. In a nutshell, vitality is a dynamic expression of our aliveness!

Those who have zest exude enjoyment while approaching various tasks in life. This joy may be an extraordinary excitement we exude, as a reflection of our enthusiasm, willingness, courage and passion. Passion for living may be described as an exuberant exhilaration … almost a ‘fanatical fascination’ or a ‘zeal’ … maybe otherwise just simply known as ‘love’. As being almost a magical quality, we may say that our zest is almost an extra-ordinary super-human strength that we have. Hence with ‘Zest’ we love life more! It’s difficult to imagine someone who’s delightfully zestful to be unhappy.

So, we may ask, where does our zest come from?

I say that our ‘Zest’ has specific components. As one component, is the virtue of courage. Courage is a special spiritedness, a strength of spirit that’s akin to bravery and the willpower we derive, as we’re aligned to our purpose and passion.

As we’re aligned with our ‘Mojo’ … our sense of purpose, we’re living life more with a sense of excitement, approaching life as an adventure, being motivated and hence facing challenging situations easier. Hence, those who have zest exude enthusiasm, and hence the motivation, excitement and courage while approaching challenging situations in life.
They perform tasks wholeheartedly, with an enthusiastic, adventurous and vivacious manner. Enthusiasm is much more than just a general interest in something. More-so, it may be described as an extra keen eagerness, a special ‘zeal’ and an overall exuberant expression of life!

So, we may ask, how can we get more zest for life?

I discuss about ‘Zest’ in much more detail in the upcoming Awakening-Awareness’ course. The first component of this course is a ‘Zest-Test’ to help assess your enthusiasm, vitality, joy and passion for life. I suggest, if you are curious to take your ‘Zest-Quiz’ now while it’s still available for free. Then throughout this course, we’ll examine how to to set the tone for enhancing your zest. However, for now, here’s some simple ‘first-steps’ you can take

I suggest as a first step, is to measure our zest. To do this, simply ask yourself, as you awake, in the morning how well do you look forward to the day? Also, throughout the day, what is your level of eagerness and willingness to get started on a project? And how well do you participate in life, rather than just being a spectator from the sideline?
Then reflect as you retire at night, how satisfied do you feel, of what we have achieved throughout the day.

In essence, our measure of zest my be reflected by how much we’re aligned with our calling. Also, to how well we’ve responded to this and hence, the success that we’ve achieved. While its true that success motivates us, also a challenge rewards us with that success. Zest seems to grow with setting some goal, meeting the challenge, achieving results and attaining some sort of success. Hence, it also suggests that our ‘Zest’ grows from some sort of adaptability, resilience and building of our strength and character.
Hence, more-so than just a general satisfaction to our work and life in general, our zest is the measure of our creativity and artistic expression. This is about how much we share of who we truly are to the world.

Also our Zest may be assessed by how much of a positive attitude we have. This is how well we approach various situations in life. How zestful are you in your everyday activities? So, in our work situation, Zest could also just simply be reflected by our morale, our attitude or perspective. It seems that those who love their job have the highest zest, while those who have low job satisfaction have the lowest. You may find, in such individuals who love their job, that their ‘zest’ can be almost contagious.

Also, another way of promoting our zest is with improving our health and physical fitness. Along with great health and physical fitness comes vitality. When we have ample vitality, we feel more alive! I discuss, in much more detail, about ‘How to Boost Your Vitality’ about ‘Zest’ in the upcoming ‘Holistic Lifestyle Mentoring’ course.

Also, our ‘Zest’ can be cultivated through enhancing our thought patterns and resolving our emotional issues. This can be enhanced and sustained through some simple ‘life-style’ practices.

Benefits of ‘Zest’
An enhanced Zest for life can benefit us in so many ways. It’s intrinsically linked to our well-being on a physical and mental levels. As our ‘zest for life’ affects our performance, it’s linked to so many areas of our life, such as our productivity, relationships and lifestyle in general. Hence, increasing zestfulness is highly likely to increase our happiness.

Zest can be applied in almost every aspect of life to bring out a more positive changes.
Those with the high levels of zest tend to excel in their chosen spheres of life and lead happier, brighter lives. They’re likely to have more curiosity, greater gratitude, positive character and love. Also in turn, to boost our Zest, more emphasis needs to be placed on developing these positive characteristics. A good Zest encourages a positive life-style that can benefit us all.

Another way to help cultivate more zest is by believing and acting ‘as if’ … which basically involves a ‘faith-based’ approach. Adopting positive verbal affirmations and body language may help with a ‘faking it until you make it’ approach. That is, continued until an increased enthusiasm and an increase in zest is a reality.

Another approach is to take an inventory of your strengths and opportunities. Simply, as we acknowledge these and work on cultivating them we may be moving more-so in the positive direction with an enhanced zest and satisfaction with. Just as Zest can be an important characteristic to cultivate life satisfaction, also visa versa. We all have certain strengths that we can build on.

The key is to ‘Find, Ignite and Boost your ‘Mojo’. This is where your unique talents are, where you shine more than anyone else. As we boost our ‘Mojo’ and strengthen our ‘zest’, we also enhance our self-empowerment. Along with reclaiming our self-empowerment, also comes increased wisdom, well-being, happiness and zest for life!

I suggest to do the simple ‘Zest-Test’ twice a day. When we first get up in the morning and as we retire at night. Remember when we were young, as a young child excited about the day ahead of us. Especially when on holidays, being in anticipation about what adventures await us. As you awake, how do you feel about the day ahead of you?
How excited are you to jump out of bed and get into your day? Simply, rate your the level of enthusiasm, vitality, joy and passion for life you’re feeling with a number from 1 to 10.
Then again, as you’re retiring at night take a moment to reflect back upon the day and observe how satisfied you are about what you’ve achieved, how you participated and the satisfaction you feel. Again, now as you reflect, simply rate your the level of enthusiasm, vitality, joy and passion for life you’re feeling with a number from 1 to 10.

Remember, we’re not conducting any medical diagnosis here, we’re simply monitoring how we are … and to make an honest assessment. To get it a bit more grounded for those who wish to grasp the nuts and bolts of it all, it’s about living a better life!

Your ‘Zest-Test’ is an on-line test to assess your enthusiasm, vitality, joy and passion for life. This initial ‘Bronze-Zest-Test’ is simple short quiz (of just 8 key questions) and should only take just a few minutes to complete, then you’ll get a basic ideal of your level of ‘Zest’ … as an indicator to help assess your enthusiasm, vitality, joy and passion for life. Later if you wish, you may choose to progress to the more involved levels of ‘Zest-Testing’ as you’re ready.

Your simple 8 Segment ‘Zest-Test’ Quiz … visit: www.Zest-Test.com