I'm soooo excited right now! That's because I am posting a reply to the Bi-Weekly Question by Abundance Tribe, which doesn't happen a lot. And that's not because I don't like this awesome community; on the contrary! Just like @ecotrain, with its Question of the Week, I enjoy reading the prompt, and then letting things happen. This means that I consider the question for a bit, then stop thinking about it, and before I know, I have formulated an answer that I'm excited about sharing. Or not. And that's cool too, it happens with both communities. In that case I don't worry too much about missing out on writing a post, I just wait till inspiration hits me. After all, what's the point, if I can't get excited about what I have to say?
The Short and Quick Answer:
So, now you may wonder what gets me most excited in life, even though I've already been highlighting it in my intro paragraph. But let's just say, I get excited in a good way, when something good is happening. I get even more excited if I took part in making it happen. Though I'd say I get most excited if I can share my excitement with others, who are excited about having made something awesome happen! And that would be it, pretty much, brought down to the point.
Examples, Examples:
Okay, so with this my post is done, right? Okay, not wanting to kill your excitement, here are a few recent examples: And what comes to mind immediately, are of course construction projects.
Putting the roof beams in place on the reciprocal roof of the Eartship-inspired round building in Mazunte early this year was such a case. First of all, the fact that the nine of us managed to place the 200+ kg logs in place, by nothing more than using ropes, pulleys, lots of pivoting and other "Stonehenge style" techniques, and of course brute manual manpower, since it happened to happen during the April lockdown, and hiring a machine was out of the question.
But we did it (I still get excited just typing this), which meant not only that we proved to ourselves that the seemingly impossible could be done, but also getting the roof to a point where it was "finished", at least nominally, so we won't have to apply for a new building permit. One less thing to worry about.
Working Hard and Playing Harder
Okay, but it doesn't have to be just building works (completed under challenging circumstances) that gets me excited. The same can be said about... traveling the way I consider most worth while. One such trip was my epic bike journey from Vancouver Island to the Mexican border two years ago. And no, it was not counting up to the 4000 km distance I had covered by the time I was done. That way it would have been unbearably boring. Neither was it the numerous experiences on the journey, which tends to happen when one travels with eyes and minds open. Of course, both had a part in all. But the best, and most exciting aspect of the ride was sharing it with a friend. Even better was to see how he kept changing plans in favor of continuing the journey together.
Originally we were just going to ride together on our down-island trip to Victoria, from where he was going to take a ferry home to Seattle, while I was planing to take another one to Port Angeles. However, at first he decided to accompany me around the Olympic Peninsula, which he knew quite well, and was happy to show me.
Then, he wanted to just make it over to Oregon, since he knew some people in Portland, from where he was gonna take a train home. But from Portland, we just continued down to Eugene, and then onward to the Cave Junction area, and before we knew it, we were in California, on our way to visit a mutual friend of ours who lives in a remote little town.
After staying with him for a week, we rode on to the redwoods, since that was something he wanted to see, and as these things tend to go, we cycled across the Golden Gate bridge together. Finally, after pigging out at an all-you-can-eat Indian lunch buffet in Santa Cruz, he really needed to go home, so I rode the last bit with him to the Salinas train station.
In all this, it was the shared experience that kept me in a continuous state of excitement.
The Big and the Small Things
So yeah, facing challenges, overcoming obstacles, and making amazing things happen is good. Watching others do this, and being happy about it, is already quite rewarding. Making things happen for the benefit of others is also nice. But being happy about what I accomplish, while it is just as much the accomplishment of others, and being aware of this, now that is what gets me most excited about things. And it doesn't matter if this pertains to work or to fun (ideally the two should be combined). It's the shared aspect that really gives it a certain plus.
Thank you #AbundanceTribe for posting this question! If you think you have another great answer to this, please feel free to participate, and check out the prompt post. You have till the end of the year to post a response.