I’m starting this post with a fun video.

If you watch any of it, hope it is enough to see Sammy Hagar’s infectious energy and Eddie Van Halen smiling as he plays the guitar. Even if you don’t understand the English language, it would be hard not to pick up on the fact that these artists are enjoying the moment ‘Right Now’.

We don’t all have jobs like singers and may feel like it is easier for people like them to be happy while they work — they make a lot of money, have lots of fans. No one watches most of us at work and if someone does, they probably are not clapping and yelling out our names. So we need to have a different reason to be smiling or jumping up and down like Sammy does in the video, right?

Wrong. In my view, I think Sammy is jumping up and down not solely because of his money or his fans, but because he is just being himself in the moment and enjoying it fully. He clearly loves to sing and perform, so he puts all his energy and enthusiasm into it and it shows. Even though I am a die-hard ‘original’ Van Halen fan, I love the Van Hagar days simply because of Sammy’s attitude. Watching VH with Sammy usually made me smile too, which was probably what he was hoping for – for the entire audience to leave the concert feeling upbeat.

So how do the rest of us get the same energy and spirit infused in our present lives? We have to figure out what makes ourselves tick. The neat thing about figuring this out is that our inner drives are not singular – finding one inner driver may lead us to find another one we hadn’t realized yet. Our drivers are not static either, the things that make us jump up and down when we are young can change as we get older (and we may not jump when we’re older – smile). When I was in elementary school, I knew I liked to solve math problems. I liked it so much, my teacher sometimes had me share my enthusiasm for it with others. That led me to discover another inner driver I have, which is to help others. It isn’t surprising that my field requires understanding of technology and numbers and I spend a large portion of my day helping other people who have problems with software. I’m getting to do my own version of Sammy’s stage jumping, even if it doesn’t look that way to the outside world. I definitely feel it inside when I’m getting to use what makes me tick.  If each of us can find a way to use our primary inner drivers every day, there is no doubt we’ll be showing that energy in our daily work and family lives. We may not show it as exuberantly as Sammy Hagar does, but we’ll feel it and our co-workers and family will pick up on it too.

So how about it, do you know what makes you tick ‘Right Now’?