If you are struggling with your happiness and expectations, here is a question to ask yourself: what level of enthusiasm are you bringing to your day, today?

Our 7 year old was up bright and early this morning and he was having a grand time singing and playing. He is happy and motivated to share his happiness with the whole household. As I write this, there are just 4 days left until Christmas and our kids are now on their 2 week school break. So my work at home routine has been disrupted by sounds of song and play.

My son's birthday is in December and shortly after his birthday, my son had the chance to meet Santa Claus. While sitting with Santa, he insisted that not only was he a good boy, but he's absolutely deserving of the best Christmas ever. He was in full joy and full "receiving" mode.

It's quite distracting at times and when I am attempting to "work" it can even become quite annoying.

He has such amazing, unbridled enthusiasm... literally about everything.

And I often find myself being annoyed with him. Do you ever do that? Do you ever let someone else's enthusiasm annoy you?

Yet, today I can't help but smile because I realize he's providing the contrast I need to see so that I can remain clear about what it is I really want.

Rather than stress about the bills and how I'll find the time to get all of the things I need to get done today, I can instead choose to model my son's behaviour. I can choose to bring enthusiasm to everything I do today and trust the results I am after will be the natural outcome of my enthusiastic action.

I can follow the lead of my son and approach my day with full enthusiasm and with the attitude that I deserve to have good things happen and the expectation that they will. And why wouldn't they?

Afterall, when you bring enthusiasm to the task at hand, that enthusiasm feeds itself, which in turn helps you to feel better about what you are doing. At the same time, it also helps you to actually do what you are doing better.

So today, ask yourself what enthusiasm are you bringing to your day? Play with this idea and watch what differences you notice in how you feel and how you perform as a result.