Excitement can leave us breathless. Our hearts pounding in our chests. Our hands jittery. It can sharpen your focus or cause a burst of creativity as your mind expands to explore all the options over this excitement. It’s like noise for your soul.

What I get excited about is what I excel at. The same goes for just about everyone. There’s a reason the word ‘boring’ has such a negative connotation.

Last night I got excited because I think I’ve found the venue for my birthday party. I’ve never thrown a party for myself before so I figure this is a good year to do it. Twenty five is an important year, a quarter of a century! It’s big! Well, big enough. And after 2007, 2008 has been an alright year in comparison.

I don’t want to give away too much about the venue but K and I found it last night when we went out for dinner. I hope we can get it on the day we want on a budget we can afford.

After we found it the excitement had us both grinning at the table while we waited for food, we spun ideas and made notes of thoughts as they came to us. It was a heady experience.

But excitement is also what drives innovation. People get excited about an idea or a question and they pursue it. The drive to succeed is lit by their excitement at the possibilities. If you’re not personally excited about a project or an idea then it’s going to be impossible for you to deliver on the goals and needs of the project.

The staff for Dragon*Con, a massive sci-fi and fantasy convention in Atlanta is made up of largely volunteers. People who donate their time and energy to make this event a success. It’s only done through their excitement at being part of this major event. They aren’t paid to do it, they get free admission to the convention when they’re not working, but otherwise it is done for the joy of others and the excitement of being part of this major event.

Dot-com startups are driven by Red Bull and pizza, but more importantly by excitement. They’ve discovered something that they believe can be their key to the next level. Something the world needs, or that an untapped market exists for. So when the guys at Google, if they had lost interest, we’d still be using Altavista or Yahoo and neither would impress us much. If Jeff Bezos of Amazon had lost interest then we’d still be buying our books at a high price from our local bookstore. If Edison had lost interest we’d be years behind in all forms of technology as the long lasting light bulb was a major step in innovation from every corner of technology.

Excitement, it’s good for the soul. Just remember to breathe.