What Makes You Feel Enthusiastic?

When you wake up in the morning, are you full of enthusiasm for the day? This becomes a very important — an existential question — to ask yourself, as we only have today. Tomorrow is just a figment of your imagination.

Think about it: waking up, dreading the day, feeling sluggish, with the mentality that you hear all the time…

“It’s just another day…”

“Another day, another dollar…”

is a complete lack of vitality and spirit — or simply, enthusiasm for the day.

To Be Possessed by a God

When you look at the word enthusiasm, its etymological roots derive from:

En — in
Theos — god

Or more specifically:

enthousiasmos — having a God within

This excitement, this eagerness for the day, fuels through me each and every morning. When I wake up, the first thing I do is attack.

I strap on my 40-pound plate carrier, I hit the pull-up bar, do some push-ups, some dumbbell exercises, some yoga, etc. I hit the coffee, make a video, do some writing, script out some future lectures, and go for a nature hike.

When I hit the nature hike and I’m surrounded by beauty — from the trees, the feeling of the breeze, the sun kissing my skin — despite whether or not it’s a cloudy or rainy day, I feel this insatiable lust for life flowing through me.

It derives from that childlike curiosity that I possess — like I’m possessed by a god, the root of what it means to be enthusiastic.

When I listen to the birds chirping, and the beautiful songs of the bugs humming, it’s like I’m having a communion with the gods, and I’m just so eager, so enthusiastic, so excited to put my body in motion.

Motivation Is in Your Legs

The word motivation derives from:

movere — to move

In order to become motivated, one must move their physical body. The problem with modern life is that we are sedentary for most of our days — which is an ultimate tragedy, I believe.

Honestly, I think boredom, stagnation, and the inability to move your physical body throughout the day is the ultimate demise of humankind right now.

It’s actually something that makes me feel really sad — almost like I just have this compassion for the modern world in a way — as it’s so tragic, so life-denying, that we sequester ourselves indoors.

How to Rest

I believe that our bodies are like batteries, and the sun is the charger.

The best way to rest is to simply lay out in the grass, to absorb the sun’s rays. Anytime there’s sun out, I make sure to hit the park, remove my shirt, and absorb the sun for at least 30 minutes to an hour.

After spending this time in the sun, I feel so recharged — with so much more exuberance of energy. It’s like we are flowers, just like the plants undergoing photosynthesis. And in order to complete that charge within your circuit, you need to plug yourself into the sun itself.

So What Makes Me Feel So Enthusiastic?

The honest answer to this question is: I just simply assume that today will be my last day, and that I may not wake up tomorrow.

Because of this, everything that comes to me in the morning is in abundance.

The simple pleasures of walking, drinking clean water, coffee, making art, reading, surrounding myself in nature’s beauty — this is enough for me to feel enthusiastic.

I think I feel so much enthusiasm, genuinely, because I have a deep connection to God.

My relationship with God has come full circle, to a point where nothing can break my spirit. Nothing can break my lust for life because I put all of my faith within God.

When you look at the word itself — enthusiasm — it makes sense, doesn’t it?

I never feel lonely, despite being alone, because I know that I have a strong relationship with the Creator. When you have that strong relationship with something higher — the divine — you can’t help but smile, and move onward into the chaos with a strong gait, walking, moving, and conquering each day.

This is what gives me strength.
This is my true source of vitality.
This is what uplifts my spirit and fuels me with enthusiasm for the day.
It’s my relationship with the Most High.

There’s More to Life Than Paying Your Bills

What does success look like in the modern world?

Paying your bills, reporting on time, making the quota, advancing your business endeavors, buying the fancy car, marrying that supermodel… all of these base-level goals mean nothing to me.

There’s more to life than just paying your bills, surviving, or even achieving any sort of material success.

While I understand the horizontal plane of this material world is something we have to acknowledge — as I need food, shelter, clothes on my back, etc. — there’s something really base and meaningless when this becomes your day-to-day life.

However, aligning myself vertically, towards the divine, I find so much more rich meaning and fulfillment in my life.

I encourage you to deeply contemplate what this means, and how you can achieve this inner peace through a connection to something greater.

It’s truly life-affirming, and life-fulfilling, when you find deep meaning in your everyday life because of it.

Life can feel like doom and gloom, or meaningless, when you’re simply going through the motions and surviving.

But when you’re full of enthusiasm, striving onwards and upwards —
I believe that we can truly thrive.

The Sublime

Yesterday I did my famous walk behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art, along the River Trail, and stood atop the cliff, overlooking the beautiful tree canopy, the rushing river and waterfall, Fairmount Park’s Greek-inspired architecture that sits just below the cliff. I gazed out toward the boathouses, and beyond the horizon—at this incredible storm cloud that was brewing in the sky. The light and shadow play in the sky during the stormy day is sublime.

What is sublime?

When I consider this notion of the sublime, I think about the emotional response a beautiful site gives me. There’s an overwhelming feeling that flows through me when I feel the sensation of the sublime.

It’s almost a feeling that makes you want to cry, or simply just evokes any sort of emotional response to you as a viewer of that beautiful thing.

The sublime is beyond beauty. For instance, I can put four corners around a beautiful flower, and say, “ha ha, yes, this is beautiful.” But the sublime goes beyond this notion of beauty, where you find a deep sense of appreciation for that beautiful thing that resonates on an emotional level—beyond the simple visual pleasure of gazing at it.

And so, as I looked out towards the horizon on this very stormy day, standing on top of the cliff, I felt this overwhelming feeling of the sublime. There’s this feeling you get through recognizing how connected we all are—from the smallest atoms in your body to the grandness of the universe and the stars above. That feeling flows through me when I stand at this location.

Transcend Beauty

I find street photography to be a very powerful medium, because it gives you a deep appreciation for the fleeting moments that are otherwise overlooked.

The photographer possesses the superpower to uplift the ordinary to an extraordinary height.

I believe great art has the power to transcend this world—to create a new world—through the medium. Our goal, our duty, is to elevate the world around us to a transcendental height—something that goes beyond this notion of beauty, inching toward the sublime.

The Unknown

It’s the duty of the artist to embrace the unknown, to move forward into the chaos, and to put order to it.

When I stand on top of a cliff, looking out towards the stormy, beautiful sky, I’m standing in the face of the unknown, which can be a bit dangerous. However, by embracing danger—and openly inviting chaos—I believe we can achieve the sublime.

The sublime is something we can evoke visually through the aesthetic choices of black-and-white, crushing the shadows, exposing for the highlights, and invoking a sense of deep mystery within our frames.

Yes, I believe aesthetics are critical in the realm of art. Honestly, everything is aesthetic. The aesthetic of architecture can even evoke the sublime. I believe architecture is one of the highest forms of art, due to the way in which man transcends the laws of physics—striving upwards—building, despite the gravity that holds us down.

Yesterday, I also walked along the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, looking out towards the same stormy sky. And it’s just an incredible sight to witness—those beautiful clouds from a high vantage point. But the sheer existence of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge itself evokes the sublime. It’s an incredible work of architecture and engineering—a symbol of man striving for excellence.

It’s the same feeling I get when I stand in the center of the Wanamaker building, looking up toward the high ceiling, listening to a beautiful piece of music from the world’s largest playing pipe organ. Or standing inside the Sistine Chapel, looking up at Michelangelo’s paintings—or any Roman Catholic Church for that matter.

This feeling overwhelms me. It gives you chills. It raises the hairs on your skin.

The Mundane is Sublime

When I walk through the mall, and I observe all of the commerce that’s occurring—the infrastructure, the people sitting down, eating, walking, shopping, observing all the different pieces of clothing and goods being sold—there is something sublime about this mundane experience.

I think when you have a deep appreciation for the simple pleasures in life—like walking, observing, feeling the different surfaces beneath your feet, or the rain on your skin, or the warmth of the sun piercing through your eyes—these simple pleasures go beyond beauty.

They’re sublime.

This deep appreciation for life punches me in the gut.

The most mundane situations—like waiting for the bus on a rainy day, or walking along the river in the spirit of play, simply following the sunlight, or spending time in a park—are enough for me to feel an emotional response to the world around me.

Maybe it’s due to me having a more sensitive perception about things. I’m definitely much more right-brain, and I have a heightened sense of intuition. I believe through that intuition—following it—and photographing from your gut, you can evoke the sublime through the visual aesthetics of a photograph.

The sublime goes beyond beauty. The sublime goes beyond putting four corners around a moment and saying “yes.”

To evoke the sublime requires the photographer to have a deep appreciation for life—a deep presence in the moment—reflecting back their soul in the photograph they make.

Detachment from the Outcome is Pure Power

Not apathy—but a deep appreciation for the feelings, thoughts, and experiences that come and go, without needing or desiring anything.

For instance, love—you can feel genuine, unconditional love for somebody and still be detached from the outcome of anything manifesting from that feeling in reality. You transmute the energy of love into a creative act: writing poetry, photography, etc.—and you find power in that.

Or anger—you transmute that energy into pure vitality and physical power.

And of course, validation—letting go of external praise or even hate is pure power, in the sense that you are no longer doing anything for an outcome. You do something purely for the love of doing it.

Repetition is the Purest Form of Mastery

Every single morning, when I ride the bus, I snapshot out the window—practicing the same exact shot of the same exact landscape every single day. There’s something to be said about mastery, about timer photography, and how we can achieve greatness through repetition. I believe that repetition and consistency are what lead to success in any endeavor in life. Photography is no different.

The more you walk, the more you see.
The more you see, the more you photograph.
The more you photograph, the more curious you become.
The more curious you become, the more you go out there and achieve the goal of making more photographs.

Climb a Mountain

One of my favorite things to do is stand on top of a cliff, a mountain, or a bridge with a vantage point, where I can look out and see the horizon. When you have a panopticon view of your surroundings from an elevated position, it fuels you with inspiration.

I don’t believe you find inspiration in people, or even in words, books, etc. The purest form of inspiration comes from nature, from the source of creation—the divine. When you tune out the noise and listen to your inner conscience, especially in the wilderness—on a trail, in the woods, on a hill, away from the hustle and bustle—you can truly hear your inner voice calling.

Think of Elijah, the prophet, rising to the mountain, listening to his conscience, after fleeing Queen Jezebel and hiding in a cave. While he was in that cave, he heard loud sounds—wind, an earthquake, and then fire. But after the fire, he heard a still, small voice. His conscience. It told him to rise and return to the world.

For the past two years straight, I’ve marched in the wilderness along the trail in Philadelphia, rising to the mountain behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art, standing on the cliff each and every day. I’ve canceled out all the noise and simply listened to my inner voice—my conscience—and allowed that to guide me back into the world, finding my place in the chaos of urban life.

Eliminate Decisions

When I walk along this trail:

If I turn left, I’ll fall into the river and drown.
If I turn right, I’ll get hit by a train.
The only option is onward and upward—to the cliff.

This is where I seek to be. Eliminate decisions. Eliminate fatigue. The mental fog of endless decisions clouds our perception and fills our lives with noise.

Think of your camera choices—endless brands, lenses, features. But by eliminating all these decisions and sticking to one camera, one lens, and moving forward daily with repetition, you can achieve mastery.

Even in food—there are a million options. But if you eat the same thing every day, at the same time, you’ll find discipline and vitality. The more physical vitality you feel, the sharper your thoughts become—and your spirit will rise to new heights.

What is Spirit?

When I consider spirit, I think about the Holy Spirit, in the Catholic tradition: The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.

I believe the Holy Spirit is the conscience. That inner voice that calls you out into the world to do, to think, to create, to explore. It tells you what’s right, what’s wrong. But the conscience can also become corrupted—especially if it arises from weakness.

Consider this:

Person A: Weak, anemic, depressed, and lacking vitality
Person B: Strong, metabolically healthy, joyous, full of vitality

Which person is more likely to seek power over others?

The answer might surprise you. It’s Person A—because those who feel powerless often envy the strong. They may lash out with bitterness, jealousy, or hate.

My theory:

Lower vitality = lower testosterone
Lower testosterone = higher sense of powerlessness
The more powerless a person feels, the more they seek to destroy

But the strong man—full of vitality—will uplift others.

This is not absolute, but there’s wisdom in it. Epictetus taught that we should only focus on what’s within our control. That’s where real power lies. If you chase what’s outside your control, you will feel powerless. And when you feel powerless, your content of character suffers.

True power: Physical, mental, and spiritual vitality
Weakness: Chasing what’s outside your control

The Joyous Giant

On the bus ride to work, there are these children who sing and chant with joy. They remind me: life is not that serious.

When you embrace your inner child, everything becomes play. When you rise early to catch the sunrise and feel its warmth on your skin, it fills you with love. And when you’re full of that love, you naturally want to share it.

The future man I envision is:

Physically strong
Mentally sharp
Spiritually radiant

He changes the world not by force, but by being the change:

Smiling at strangers
Giving compliments
Listening deeply

These small acts create ripples. They only come from inner abundance.

Tap Into the Source

During my Peace Corps service in Zambia, I learned the power of water.

Every village had a church (for moral/spiritual vitality) and a well (for physical vitality). But a well needs a source. Without it, the well runs dry.

We are the well.
God is the source.
If you tap into the source, you overflow with life—able to nourish others.

Be Like a Tree

I’m surrounded by trees every day at the Centennial Arboretum. Some date back to 1876. There’s one towering tree that stuns me every time I see it.

Its limbs stretch to the sky. Its roots are deep in the soil.

We too must become like trees:

Rooted deep
Reaching for the light
Competing, struggling, thriving
Growing through pain and rain

And when we grow tall, we bear fruit—sweet, plump, nourishing figs. This is the fruit of our spirit: kindness, love, light.

When you grow your roots into the earth and rise to the sun, you bear fruit that feeds the world.

Grow deep.
Reach high.
Bear fruit.
And fly like a dove.
A free spirit.

Raw Power

For the past week, I’ve been experimenting with drinking raw milk, and I’ve even been mixing it with raw honey. I’ve been practicing a 100% carnivore diet for two and a half years now, and I’ve never felt this powerful in my entire life. But ever since I started training at a boxing gym six weeks ago—alongside some HIIT training and Ashtanga yoga—I’ve been upping the intensity on top of my morning strength training. Because of this, I’m starting to think more about recovery, longevity, and new protocols for muscle repair.

The Importance of Recovery

Every morning and night, I take hot baths with Epsom salt followed by cold showers. As I lay in the hot, boiling water and start to sweat, I feel so rejuvenated after stepping out of the cold. What I’ve realized is this: if you take proper recovery measures, you don’t even need to take rest days. You can just keep going—with raw power, vitality—and the Epsom salt baths seem to be playing a major role.

In the morning, I like to hydrate with water and take a small dab of raw honey mixed with pink Himalayan salt. It feels like salt helps carry the minerals through the body, and combining it with honey—or with my new evening ritual of raw milk—seems to genuinely help with recovery.

I’m starting to feel something insatiable growing in me—this overpowering energy. The surprising thing is, I’ve been feeling this power while remaining completely fasted all day until sunset. I train on an empty stomach and eat only one meal a day. But when you fill your body with real nutrients—meat, liver, salt, water, raw milk, raw honey, raw cheese—you tap into the most ancient, primal source of force and power you can possibly consume.

The Land of Milk and Honey

I find it interesting that the Promised Land—Israel—is called the land of milk and honey. There may be deep truth to this. A land of milk speaks to richness and nourishment from cattle, while honey is a symbol of delicacy and luxury. But the Promised Land, I think, is more than a geographic location or a metaphysical heaven—it’s an internal state.

We create heaven on earth. The Kingdom is within. There’s a reason why Jesus said this.

If you’re waking up each morning dreading the day, stuck in a life you hate, pacifying yourself with TV and junk food at night, that’s hell on earth. But if you rise with raw power, vitality, curiosity, and eagerness—fueling your day with love for what you do—you’ve created paradise.

To create heaven on earth, you must obey and listen to the highest power: God. Everything else falls into place.

Listen to the Inner Voice

Take Moses leading the Israelites out of slavery. At the border of the Promised Land, God tells Moses to ask the rocks for water. But Moses doesn’t listen—he strikes the rocks instead. And because of this disobedience, he never enters the Promised Land.

What I take from this is: you must listen to God—not society, not politicians, teachers, friends, parents. Your intuition may seem “crazy” like speaking to rocks, but it’s your direct line to the divine.

That voice inside you is the path to the Kingdom.

Follow Your Intuition

We all have this godlike intuition, but the noise of modern life drowns it out. The city, the phone, the screens, the algorithm—it confuses people, blinds them to what they truly want.

The only way to hear that voice is to step away.

Go into the wilderness. Literally. Walk the nature path. Surround yourself with beauty. Silence the chatter and you’ll hear the call. But if you drown that voice in consumption and distraction, you’ll never find it.

I can only speak for myself, but I genuinely believe I’ve found heaven on earth. I was doing social media work that drained my soul. So I quit. I was jobless for over a year. But in that silence, I listened to God.

And it led me to a life I resonate with on the deepest level. Now I work a job I love. I’ve found inner peace. It all came from obeying the voice within—without fear.

You need courage to listen to intuition. Cancel the noise, and you’ll finally hear it. And once you hear it, obey it. Submit to it. Then life unfolds the way it should. And in that unfolding, you’ll find peace, clarity, purpose, and meaning.

The Eternal Return

If you had to relive today for the rest of eternity—would you thrive?

This is the ultimate existential question. Even more important than confronting death. Because when you accept mortality, you ask: Am I living well?

You realize life is repetition. So you better live in a way that you can affirm it—again and again.

Wake up eager to see the sunrise. Eager to move your body. Eager to walk forward. Think of Sisyphus rolling the stone uphill, again and again. Is life suffering? Maybe. But can you affirm it? Yes.

I believe true freedom only comes from true physical vitality.

Cultivate Courage

When David faced Goliath, he was just a small shepherd boy. But he had courage. He armed himself with God and stepped into the unknown. One clean shot. The beast fell.

Without courage, David would’ve never become King.

So muster courage. Face what’s in front of you. Overcome it. Become King of your own internal kingdom.

Create paradise.

Be the creator.

Why waste your time squandering your potential when you could live meaningfully?

Time is our greatest currency. Spend it well.

Because you could die tomorrow.

So ask yourself:

Would you rather die a good boy—on time, obedient, and forgettable?

Or would you rather die knowing you moved forward with raw power, vitality, and purpose—carving your own path, living a life that meant something?

The Faith of a Child

I’ve been thinking a lot about childlike curiosity lately, and what it means to return to being a child. I first started to think more about this after reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche, where he discusses the three metamorphoses of the spirit: first, the Camel, then the Lion, and finally, the Child.

First, you are a Camel, carrying as much of the world’s weight on your back as you can. Then you become a Lion, carving your own path and living on your own terms. Finally, you transform into a Child.

When I think about the final evolution being a Child, it makes sense: a child has endless potential for growth, isn’t yet hardened by societal norms, or trapped by what they think they know about the world. A child has infinite potential.

A Child is a Slave?

Think about it: a child has no rights.

In the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, children were often sold into slavery, forced into labor, and had no rights in society. A child has no identity, relying entirely on the guidance of a parent or figure of authority.

Now, if you think about the child submitting to the ultimate authority, that authority would be God.
If you think about the ultimate hierarchy for a functioning society, it is:

God
Tribe
Land

The Importance of Tribe

I spent a year in a rural village in Zambia, Africa, amongst the Bemba tribe. I learned the local language and worked in fish farming. During my time there, I was integrated into a local family, becoming a surrogate member of the Bemba tribe.

At the center of my village, there was a church. This church was the foundation and the rock that held down the community. Everybody gathered there, and at the center of the church was the altar — the place of sacrifice — where everyone reminded themselves of the archetype, the hero, Jesus Christ.

Because everyone gathered at the church, they submitted to God’s will and put Him at the top of the hierarchy.
Everyone in the village was driving upwards, sharing land horizontally across families, while striving vertically toward God.

The family unit was the ultimate authority. Everyone within the family and the tribe had a role to play:

Mothers came home with babies on their backs and firewood on their heads every morning.
Girls woke up to the sound of mortar and pestle, preparing food for the day.
Boys built bricks with sand and mud.
Men built churches and homes, or fished at the lake.

There was a certain human thriving I witnessed in these rural villages of Zambia that I have never seen before — and certainly feel is neglected in the West today.
I believe it has to do with the correct hierarchy: God, Tribe, and Land.

Remove Your Identity

In the United States, we are obsessed with individualism, consumerism, and differentiating ourselves by purchasing things. However, I believe in true individualism.

If you look at the word identity, it derives from the Latin word idem, meaning “the same.”

Essentially, the more people consume and the more they identify with external things, the more they actually become the same — and not true individuals at all.

A Child Has No Identity

A child does not subscribe to political ideologies, go to stores to buy things, identify with religious practices, or follow dogmas and traditions.
A child is merely a slave to authority.

A child has no real idea of what is right or wrong until they engage in play with other children and learn how to form interpersonal relationships.

To be a child, once again, is to have no fixed identity — to be a complete slave to God’s will.

In the first book of the Bible, the Old Testament’s Genesis, God makes a covenant with man, with Abraham.

God’s promise to Abraham was:

Land (modern-day Israel)
Descendants (Tribe)
Blessings throughout the nations

Once again: the ultimate hierarchy — God, Tribe, Land.

When God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, Isaac voluntarily offered his body for sacrifice, carrying the wood willingly, submitting to God.
As Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son, God intervened and replaced Isaac with a ram.

Fast-forward 2,000 years later:
In the New Testament, we see Jesus carrying his cross, in the same general region of Jerusalem.
Jesus voluntarily sacrificed His flesh and body — the ultimate fulfillment of the New Covenant.

One of Jesus Christ’s most famous teachings was that in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, you must return to being a child:

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
(Matthew 18:3, ESV)

Perhaps to return to being a child is to strip away your identity, voluntarily pick up your cross, and embrace the suffering and burden of life itself, becoming a slave to God’s will.

The Artist’s Role: Purity and Creation

Especially as artists, maybe it is most important to embrace life with purity, innocence, and a natural trust that everything happens as it should — despite the cynicism and negativity modern society imposes upon us.

The horizontal plane — the material world, wealth, fame, fortune — is merely a distraction.
We must embrace simplicity, the divine connection on the vertical plane, striving upwards and beyond the material, toward the metaphysical world through the act of creation.

Perhaps, after all, the creation of art is the closest thing to touching the metaphysical plane.