A great life demands a great response, and a great capacity for enjoyment. Zeal is all that and more. It is more enthusiastic than enthusiasm, more glittery than gold and brighter than sheer brilliance. It is a single-minded focus of energy that ignores or avoids nothing, yet manages to steer clear of the worst detritus floating in the currents of life.

Zeal is the zig and the zag of life, the zap of experience and the zowie of discovery. It is the ability to indulge without addiction, to absorb without being consumed and to engage without being ensnared. It sticks its tongue out at boredom and exhaustion. It good-naturedly drags doubts along the path kicking and screaming, yet never abandons them to the dark. It is the energy that yanks you out of bed in the morning, and the peace that lets you sleep at night. It is the spirit of life and the ecstasy of death. It is the core of a great life.

What provokes your zeal? What dampens it? How can you bring more of the former and less of the latter into your life? Being zealous need not verge into being a zealot, one who has misused the raw energy of zeal to their detriment. By remain open to new experience and new information, and allowing yourself to laugh at yourself, zeal can carry you a long way in a long, and great, life.

(c) Soni Pitts

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Soni Pitts is the Chief Visionary Butt-Kicker of SoniPitts.Com. She specializes in helping others reclaim "soul proprietorship" in their lives and to begin living the life their Creator always intended for them.

She is the author of the free e-book "50 Ways To Reach Your Goals" and over 100 self-help and inspirational articles, as well as other products and resources designed to facilitate this process of personal growth and spiritual development.