Shine Bright!

New parents, new lovers, newly converted, people discovering a great new ashram, sport, hobby, or any other infatuation. We all share a common stigma. Most people want us to just shut up already. There is something about falling in love that puts a shine so bright on us that makes some people just want to turn us off.

What kind of trips me out about this phenomenon is that it is socially accepted that shining too brightly is annoying (at best). Like new parents who just can’t stop talking about their beautiful perfect babies are somehow rubbing the rest of our noses in it. I was that guy (okay, I’m always that guy). I couldn’t stop talking about my kids. Even now, I have to remind myself mid-emote, that the general contractor of our new headquarters really doesn’t care, he was just being polite.

So, as a moderately self aware and passably socially competent person, I’ve learned to temper my excitement so as not to piss everybody around me off. This makes me immediately more cool, while simultaneously and proportionally reducing my joy. What’s worse, I’ve been doing this for years. I have intentionally been hiding and diminishing my joy of and excitement about life for years in order to make other people feel more comfortable. That right there is messed up, and I’m going to start working on it right now.

I’m not keen on making anybody else feel less important, nor am I interested in becoming a pariah. I’ve been thinking about this, and experimenting here and there and have come to the conclusion that the key to shining brightly is to make everybody you interact with feel awesome about themselves while you’re at it. My buddy Krister is a wizard at this.  He exudes stoke, both about his own passions and others’.  This is the way it should be. Stoke is an abundant force. It’s like love in that you can always make more. Endless supply meets infinite demand. This is a sustainable ideology.

So, how about it? There’s a comments section below. Let us know why you’re glowing, shining, going supernova. Are you annoyed by someone else’s obnoxious exuberance? Have you been stoked by someone lately?

p.s. I AM GOING TO START A CIRCUMNAVIGATION IN 96 DAYS. I AM SO FREAKING EXCITED ABOUT THIS I CAN’T STAND MYSELF!