My Happiness Project: 
Z is for Zest
The AtoZ Challenge means posting every day in April except Sundays, which leaves exactly 26 days – one day for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet.
See my Great and Powerful Theme Reveal – My Happiness Project – for a full list of the posts, updated throughout the series.
And be sure to check out , a Twitter list composed of individuals I have every intention of visiting during this year’s challenge.
Zest (noun): keen relish; hearty enjoyment; gusto; piquancy; interest; charm; liveliness or energy; animating spirit; spice, tang; invigorating or keen excitement.
Z is for Zest
Whoa, you guys. I totally thought I published this like two weeks ago, like the last day of May or some junk like that. Then I decided to step away from blogging for June while I get my shit straight. Because, you know, SUMMER.
blah-blah blah.
So anyway, I guess I better hit publish on this so I can move along. I actually logging into WordPress just now with the thought that I’d attempt to get some thoughts jotted down into drafts. I actually have a quasi-schedule now and I want to stick to it, insofar as I ever stick to anything that isn’t glue, Velcro, or adhesive in some fashion.
*sigh*
Guess I’ll start that laters. Anyway, here’s the super-late post to complete the AtoZ thing from April. My bad.
I am having all the zest.
T-Rex is having all the zest.
You may, or may not, have noticed that it’s May {Edit: it’s now JUNE} and this was meant to be part of an April challenge. I want you to know that I have absolutely zero guilt over finishing late. I am so busy living my life and enjoying myself, my bloggy-blog kind of fell by the wayside. And that’s actually a GOOD thing, since I started my blog in a fit of angsty rage. It was about venting and ranting, which I haven’t felt the need to do for quite some time.
All of which is to say:
My life is spicy, and I enjoy the taste. Which is what a Happiness Project is all about. So in the quest to attain joy, I am winning. It’s not a competition, of course. But yeah, I’m winning anyway.
The zeal is real.
When I first drafted my post for Z, the template indicated I would use the term “zeal” rather than “zest”. I use them here interchangeably. See, I like zeal. The idea of being zealous, and doing things with enthusiastic energy, is quite appealing. But I don’t like the concept of zealotry, which I attach to crazy religious people who knock on my door to ask if I have considered my plan to get into God’s good graces. I start thinking about that, and then the word “zeal” turns my stomach.
Plus, there were more images containing the word “zest” so that was also a thing.
Here are my thoughts on Zest and Zeal:
I am an all-or-nothing kind of gal. I either get excited about something and jump all over that wagon and learn how to drive it and memorize all the various turn signals and methodologies and then immerse myself in the sundry philosophies of its other passengers… or else I am dramatically boooooored of the thing and can’t be bothered to get out of bed or spare a square or send a prayer or spend a quarter or give half a fuck. There is, quite literally, no in-between. It drives everyone crazy.
I don’t do a lot of things. {And the entire audience chuckled because really, we already knew that.}
But BOY, when I do them, I do them ALL.THE.WAY. I whistle while I work — not that this how-you-say “work” thing happens often, but the whistling is an indication that I am busy doing the things.
In preparing posts for this challenge, I started considering the difference between living versus surviving. And it struck me, penning this final post on zest, that this is IT. This is the thing. This is what I’m trying to figure out.
Do things, or don’t do things. But pick one and get there. Be that all-or-nothing person.
Do EVERYTHING with zest.
- Enthusiastically plunge into a task… or enthusiastically avoid it like the motherfucking plague.
- Enthusiastically get off the couch and get shit done… or enthusiastically take a nap.
- Show up with a song in your heart… or stay home and sing to yourself.
- Shit or get off the pot.
- Go loud or go home.
Do, or don’t do. There is no try.
This is what Yoda meant. He didn’t mean that the effort doesn’t count. He didn’t mean that you are going to succeed every single time you put out your best effort. He meant Give it your all — Put your heart into it.
Much as the destination is a bit beside the point, so is the success or failure of any endeavor. Just go all in.
Stop surviving. Start living.
But we stupid mortals, or most of us, are always in haste to reach somewhere else, forgetting that the zest is in the journey and not in the destination. ~Ralph D. Paine
Every day during this challenge I will share a book* about Happiness, or fighting Depression, or one that cracked me up good.
Try The Bliss Experiment: 28 Days to Personal Transformation, by Sean Meshorer.
*Please see my post “B is for Books” for a full listing of all the books mentioned throughout this series.
Success is due less to ability than to zeal. ~Charles Buxton
Every day during this challenge I will share a song from my Happiness Song List.
Today’s song is “Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba.
*Please see my post “M is for Music” for a full listing of all the music mentioned throughout this series. Or click here — Andi-Roo’s Happiness Project — for the entire YouTube playlist.
- What does “zest” mean to YOU?
- Do you live life with zeal?
- Did seeing this AtoZ post in May (Edit: June) come as a bit of a shock?
