Head's Blog

Friends, 

Here we are again – the start of a new year. As someone who has now experienced a good number of these beginnings, I’m grateful to simply be here, to see/feel another one. With a little luck and some hard work, you young ones – fresh-faced and limber, unencumbered by the need for reading glasses, mop slippers, and a cabinet full of probiotics – may feel the same as I do right now. It’s just good to be here. 

No, actually, it’s great! So great in fact, that I’m back this New Year’s Eve to make sure you never forget to embrace in 2025 an eminently doable and yet often undervalued state of being – practicing maximum enthusiasm.  

Yes, I get it, not everyone wants to practice maximum enthusiasm and not every situation calls for it. Please, don’t be too rigid or rational right now, just go with the idea, lean in, and you will be better off. Here are three reasons why: 

• Enthusiasm generates energy, making challenges feel surmountable and fueling resilience. It can take a mundane task like washing the dishes and turn that chore into a party. It’s like this guy says “empty sink, don’t gotta think!” 

• People are naturally drawn to those who exude enthusiasm. Those people inspire trust, build stronger relationships, and create fun opportunities and experiences that enhance life. Your enthusiasm may even start a movement.

• How you approach life becomes a part of how people remember you. Enthusiasm for your work, relationships, and passions leaves a lasting impression of joy and purpose. Maybe the next time you see your friend you do this. And make the world a better place. 

This concept of practicing maximum enthusiasm comes from a blog post by Brendan Leonard. It's his idea and he gets all the credit. For your reading enjoyment, I loosely edited his version, taking out some fun but colorful language, and personalized it to make it, well, more personal. Here it goes. Voilà!:

One Thursday night in December, my staff and I were at Tacolicious in Palo Alto for our annual holiday party. People were eating, laughing, hugging, and talking. The venue was perfect, festive and spacious, yet just crowded enough to make us feel connected and comfortable. As the night went on and the White Elephant gift game wrapped up, one of the servers who works at the restaurant turned to me, and said, "This party was so much fun! The people you work with are hilarious and so kind and so easy to be with. I wish all the nights I work here could feel more like a Synapse party. This was the best!”

I laughed, smiled, and said loudly, “Yeah, this group of people are the best. Can you believe I get to work with them? It’s just incredible.” 

Sometimes I get to do awesome things, and I kind of forget how awesome they are. Do you get to do awesome things and forget too? I get distracted, caught up by life, and I forget how fortunate I am, how incredible life has turned out to be most days. Much of the time, though, I try to keep a pretty good handle on it, and to remember to turn around and yell to that server that yes, this group of teachers and staff are incredible, and that’s pretty special. 

Writer Kurt Vonnegut, in a 2003 speech to students at the University of Wisconsin, said,

“I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.’”

In 2025, I urge you to notice when something is incredible, as it often is, and exclaim or murmur or just make a mental note of it. Isn’t it just fantastic that you have your physical health, for example? Or that you have a smartphone when you are stuck in an airport? Or that you have enough time and money to take your kids on vacation? And maybe best yet, if you want ice cream, you are at any time in the Bay Area probably only 5 or 10 minutes away from a place that sells some form of it? (It's a fact. Go see for yourself. Wouldn’t that be a fun challenge to prove true or false in 2025!)

Your life, even the bad parts, is amazing. And most of the small things that make up your life are amazing, too — playing music, solving puzzles, riding bikes, surfing waves, swimming, stretching, sunsets, sunrises, snow storms, friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, furry friends, new friends, strange friends … heck, even the hot water on command that you got to use this morning was pretty phenomenal, wasn’t it? Wasn’t it??

What was your enthusiasm for these things last year? I recommend you step it up in 2025. People can disagree with things like quality, maybe your taste in clothes, or whether or not Taylor Swift is any good without Jack Antenoff (She is, trust me. Other producers add more sonic variety to her music. Sorry, Jack. She doesn’t need you anymore). But no one can argue with enthusiasm, especially when it's over the top.

Do you think that show you just saw was the best show ever? Great! If someone tries to tell you it isn’t, who cares? “Best Show Ever” is not an objective title. Thus, when you are excited about a show (or a book or a lake or a sandwich or a pillow), don’t let anyone bring you down. A conversation where someone puts down your favorite book/lake/sandwich/pillow is not a conversation about a book/lake/sandwich/pillow. It is a conversation about that person being negative. Go forth and be positive in 2025.

Enthusiasm doesn’t have to stand up to criticism. It doesn’t even have to really make sense. If you finish a painting, yoga session, or making cookies, and you like/love it, I encourage you to try out new superlatives when describing it to someone else. This goes for everything you’re excited about. Examples:

• "Sure Bay Area coffee is amazing, but I'm telling you, in San Antonio, the cortado here is unreal! Went there twice over the holiday, and I even waited online for six minutes. That's a record for me!"

• “Did you see your son Ben dancing with his aunt last night? He made her feel like she was 25. That was the ultimate boss-move. Your kid is a pro at helping people have a great time!”

• “Bro, Mavericks is going off! Can you believe this wave is right here?? Wait, you’ve never been out there to check out the madness and magic? What are we waiting for, let’s go!”

• The Olympics were unbelievable this year! Remember the call of the men's 1500 meter final? Heart stopping, so intense, so electric. Was it better than Diggins in 2018? Who cares?! They are both legendary!!

• “Hey, check out this ski film trailer. It will make you smile so hard. So celebratory, so fun to see friends being goofballs. It’s contagious. Gotta love it!” 

Maybe some of the stuff you love, that you’re passionate about, isn’t cool. Hey, this is 2025. Everything is up for grabs. Be honest: when you see a middle school kid wearing a Poison t-shirt do you think, does that kid even know three of their songs? Or are they wearing that shirt because they want to look proper? Do you like Poison? Are you proper? Who cares? ROCK THAT SHIRT. And spread happiness.

Remember, it is not illegal to high-five anyone. Do you use exclamation points in the salutations of your emails? Well, why not?

Do you like to laugh? Most people do, don’t they? Including cashiers, grandparents, and people waiting in emergency rooms. Perhaps you have at some point had a real conversation with one of these people. This can sometimes begin by sincerely asking those people how they are. If you play your cards right, you may be able to high-five them at the end of a conversation.

Remember yesterday, when you saw that one thing that reminded you of that one friend of yours, and you thought about how if you sent that friend a photo/video of the thing that reminded you of them, they would smile? But then you didn’t send your friend that photo/video, and it wasn’t awesome. Don’t do that again. Here’s what you do:

• Take the photo/video.

• Send it to your friend.

• Your friend smiles. The world is a better place. Thanks.

You may have already made some New Year’s resolutions, to exercise more, to socialize more, drink more water, whatever. How about making one more resolution, to be just a little more awesome?

Happy New Year, Synapse. It is going to be the best year ever!!

Jim