Have you ever met someone who lives their life to the fullest?

They go out dancing and hiking; explore new countries and restaurants; jump out of bed each morning with a sense of excitement, their face always showing an expression of joy. Their energy is often contagious, as you can feel in radiating - sometimes even taking you back to a childhood moment for a smile.

These are people with ZEST!

WTF is Zest?

Whether it is energy, enthusiasm, or vigor, basically Zest is a way of ‘approaching life with excitement and energy’. Those with Zest rarely do things halfway or halfheartedly - they are alive and activated.

According to the VIA Classification of Character Strengths (take the survey if you haven’t yet to learn your strengths!), Zest falls under the virtue category of COURAGE, the strength that allows us to overcome fear. This is why we see people with zest do extraordinary things.

Why Does Zest Matter?

Many studies show that zest is strongly related with life satisfaction and well-being. In fact, research has found that in general zest is ranked second after hope with the highest correlation to life satisfaction, while gratitude followed close behind. 

When it came to college students, zest was revealed as the number one contributor to life and learning satisfaction, followed by love and hope.

In workplace studies, zest has been found associated with finding ones calling and passion, creating a meaningful relationship with work that not only increases work satisfaction but also reduces sick days, turnover and early retirement.

Cultivating Zest

Since I think we all want improved sense of purpose, learning and overall life satisfaction, let’s talk about some activities that research has found that could help increase the zest in your life.

•  A supportive supervisor at work and good social relationships outside of work are important contributors to zest. This is not only about finding the right job and company for you to start, but also a call to organization to realize the importance of strong social relationships and communication at work.

• Exercise it! Physical exercise such as yoga is commonly known to promote well being and therefore engaging in activities that require physical effort like playing sports or adding a little more exercise (like taking the stairs instead of the escalator) could help to boost your blood flow and energy.

• Make life fun and engaging through adding more challenges onto your daily routine, creating new ways to complete your boring schedule, and doing extra, exciting new activities along the way would also help increase zest. I find even just going a direction on my walks adds some spice!

• Social contact can also help improve Zest — just call up an old friend, have coffee with a new friend, or join a sport team or club. Bounce ideas, opinions and enthusiasm off of each other, learn new things, have fun, crack jokes, and enjoy the moment. Find the things in life that make you happy and feel connected to others and for sure you will find your zest!

Zesty Happiness

As one of the happiness strengths, Zest is all about feeling alive and living wholeheartedly. We were very zesty as children. Zest is all about breaking your routine, practicing mindfulness, getting psychical, talking about your dreams, building new relationships and celebrating little victories!

I challenge you to not just try many of these activities in the next few weeks, but also make sure you take time to savor each moment! And don't forget to experiment and take note of the impact! Zest level feeling 4/10 before you leave, 8/10 when you return from hike. Yes, hiking works for me to boost Zest and life satisfaction! Zest 4/10 before you leave, 2/10 when you return from a networking event - no, that’s not the zesty path for you.

Message me and let me know how your journey back to zest is going!