Vivaciousness

People seem to gravitate toward those who are excited and optimistic about life—well okay, that’s not the case for all people, but even fellow pessimists will often prefer those who are animated and moved by their pessimistic viewpoint. We like to believe that our lives are being lived to their fullest, that this life of ours has some meaning and purpose, and it’s much easier to feel that way when we’re enjoying the company who lives that way because their vivaciousness seems to rub off on us. On the other hand, those that are unmoved and usually down tend to remind us about our own failings and our inabilities to create change around us. It makes sense, then, that vivacious people infect their own lives with energy and positivity and are more likely to find pleasure and fulfillment simply because their attitude and philosophy inclines them to look for it and create it in daily moments where it might not be readily expected. When you decide to become a more vivacious person, it’s not merely to make people want to spend more time with you, it is also for your own benefit as you will better enjoy the time you spend with yourself!

Liveliness and Vivaciousness are similar and often go hand-in-hand. Liveliness is more about having the energy and will to keep moving and getting things done, while vivaciousness is more of an internal well of energy spent on living for the pleasure of living. It can often be hard to have one without the other, although I think it’s more common to have liveliness without vivaciousness than vice-versa. In fact, if you are having trouble improving your liveliness what you might want to do is improve on your vivaciousness so you have better reasons to want to keep your energy up!

Vivaciousness is more about internal energy than simply acting or sounding up and energetic. The first step in becoming more vivacious is improving your attitude toward your life, mainly toward finding ways in being more-than-satisfied with your routine, daily activities. You also have to have a stronger sense of optimism about what you can accomplish and when you do fail, you should develop a sense of optimism about the value and potential your life still holds even in the wake of disappointment.

You also have to allow yourself to enjoy life, which is something some people have a hard time doing out of duty or guilt. Clearly you are never going to be a vivacious person if you feel it is inherently wrong for you to feel pleasure or to enjoy life. If duty or responsibilities are keeping you from "living" you life, then you need to find ways to make time for yourself as well. The danger here, of course, is the possibility of ignoring your responsibilities or causing other problems for yourself. In most cases it is possible to make time for your own pleasure and enjoyment without infringing on your important responsibilities. If children are your responsibility, for instance, you can find ways to spend genuinely enjoyable time with them in such a way that isn’t a chore for either party. If you spend a lot of time at work, there can often be people there you can develop closer relationships with, or you can perhaps try to develop an improved attitude of pride in your work in order to improve the pleasure you get just out of doing your job.

Other things you can do to improve your vivaciousness is to find causes or hobbies that can give your life a little more extra meaning. While the hobbies might not be vitally important to the well-being of anyone, working on personal hobbies helps by combining the pleasure of spending personal time with the satisfaction of doing work (without all that resentment associated with forced labor). Good causes can give your life more purpose directly by giving you something you can do in your spare time to make you feel like you make a difference in the world and have something positive to work towards. While families can be rewards within themselves, they can also help improve your vivaciousness in a similar way as they can improve your life’s sense of purpose (even as children can zap away all your energy and liveliness).

Finally, one of the most classic ways to improve your vivaciousness is to find a little romance in your life. Many if not most of you living without romance don’t do it simply because you’ve hadn’t had enough encouragement, but there are times we don’t make the time or the effort for this part of our life simply because we feel we are too busy with personal responsibilities or we have fear lingering from shyness or some painful experiences. If there were any reason to make time for yourself and to get out of your comfort zone, romance would be it. No matter how many times your boss says your life has been built around selling his widgets, many, many years of the biological imperative have been telling your body otherwise.