How Excitement Sabotages Success

“Get excited and enthusiastic about your own dream. This excitement is like a forest fire - you can smell it, taste it, and see it from a mile away!” - Denis Waitley

By Sasha Crouch
Most of us think excitement is a positive emotion, right? Excitement feels like such a yummy emotion, it creates a sense of drive, pleasure, and possibility. However, just because an emotion feels good, doesn't mean it is good for us. Pleasure does not equate with what is best for us long term. There are lots of things that feel good that are not in alignment with our long-term, higher good.

Let me explain: Excitement may feel good at the time as it floods our body and fuels us into action. However, when we're excited by an idea, all too often, our blinkers shoot up. We stop seeing the big picture and hone in on the immediate pleasure of the opportunity in front of us. Swept away in our excitement we convince ourselves all will be ok and fail to check in with what is actually required. As a result we make commitments we can't keep or later regret or we jump in head first on a project without first doing the ground work.

Excitement can trigger an onset of obsession - being unable to slow down and stop, breaking other commitments to family or our health because we have become swept away with yet another idea, project or task.
Excitement can also induce sleepless nights and an inability to switch off and be present with the ones we love, as our mind races about where we're heading and all we have to do to 'get there'. Overwhelm is another common by-product as our excitement induces urgency and impatience to get the end result. We see lists of things we need to get through to bring the idea to life and overwhelm ourselves out of taking even the first small steps.

Don't get me wrong, excitement is not the enemy! The goal isn't to squash excitement out of your life. Rather, it's about recognising the impact of excitement left unchecked and ensuring you don't let it carry you away to somewhere other than where you truly desire to be.

Where in your life and work do you allow excitement to sabotage your success? Let's discover how to turn this around so you can enjoy excitement without it damaging your results and life.

Five Steps to Tame Excitement so it Fuels Your Success:

1. Recognition - start to notice when you go into a feeling of excitement. Don't try to push it down, or hide it, simply notice it and remind yourself how easy it is to get carried away in a moment of excitement.
2. Slow it down - excitement induces a feeling of urgency. Find a way to tame this urgency by meditating, taking a brisk walk, deep breathing, or stillness. Decide not to make any decisions until you feel more centred and have checked in properly with the steps involved.
3. Check in with yourself - get in touch with your long-term visions and goals. What is important to you long-term? Is this thing you're excited about in alignment with what you really want in life, will it lead to the achievement of your goals or is it a detour or distraction? Have you found out what is specifically involved in the project, task or decision or is excitement clouding your 'reality check'?
4. Play devil's advocate - when excited it's hard to see the 'down sides' of a decision, or a repetitive pattern. Ask someone to play devil's advocate with you to face the realities beyond your excitement.
5. Create a small step plan - in order to avoid overwhelm and throwing out your priorities, create a plan of the first few steps and priorities these steps against all the other priorities in your life and work. Take an objective stance and ask yourself how much time you are willing to give to this new project and when - despite your immediate desire to throw yourself into it.

Enjoy the pleasure of excitement and allow it to delight and inspire you! However, don't allow excitement to rule your decision making and cloud your judgement. Your intuition and inner knowing sit at a more centred place than excitement, they sit at a place of peace and calm. Find this space to make your decisions, and if the lights are green, place one foot in front of the other and enjoy the ride!

“Nothing is so aggravating than calmness!” - Oscar Wilde