As a writer, I LOVE learning new words! As a personal-growth writer, I especially love it when these words relate to personal growth! So, I’d love to introduce you to two of my favorite words that I’ve learned in recent years:

Funktionslust and Eustress

Funktionslust is a German word meaning “pleasure taken in what one does best”–having a love (or lust) for the functions you perform especially well!

Eustress combines the prefix eu- (meaning good–as in “euphoria” or “euphemism”) and the word “stress”–resulting in “good stress” (as opposed to the bad kind: “distress”).

For me, these words are a joy to use (and experience!) individually, and even more wonderful when combined. Here’s how I see them (and why I think they relate perfectly to personal growth):

Many self-help techniques (especially in the area of business/success) focus on doing things well: tools to maximize efficiency and productivity, and ways to perform at peak capacity. But all the tips, tools, and “best practices” in the world are merely superficial fixes (or pointless cover-ups) without an underlying sense of joy, of passion, of funktionslust.

Take your funktionslust, and make it happen!

Taking pleasure in what you do is important in at least three ways:

• First of all, you’re FAR more likely to do a good job at things you enjoy. Your work (or play) will reflect the life and joy you bring to whatever you do–be it dancing, coaching, bike-riding, parenting, writing, or anything else. It will shine through in your every word, movement, creation, and interaction.
• Secondly, even if you could be great at something you didn’t enjoy, what would be the point? Success would be joyless.
• Finally, if you take pleasure in your activities, then your happiness is not dependent on any externals. When you find joy in the process–in the activities themselves–any external reward becomes an almost superfluous byproduct of your joyful action.

It’s “Eustress”–NOT “You Stress”!

We all know what it feels like to be stressed in a bad way–to be nervous, anxious, or distressed. But just like there’s a “good cholesterol,” there’s also a good kind of stress. This is when you feel challenged, when you push just beyond your comfort zone, when you’re forced to bend–but NOT break!

Here’s an example you might remember from childhood (or adulthood): Have you ever ridden a ten-speed bicycle? As a kid, that was my primary mode of transportation, so I still remember very clearly what it felt like to pedal in the different gears:

First gear was great for riding uphill, fifth gear was good for flat surfaces, and tenth was usually reserved for pedaling downhill. But if you put the bike into first gear while riding downhill, you got almost no resistance. You could pedal and pedal without making any noticable difference–it felt pointless. On the other hand, trying to climb a hill in tenth gear was almost impossible. You’d hardly be able to move the pedals at all–and would probably end up getting off and walking your bike up the hill!

The key was to find the optimal gear for your strength and situation. You could tell where this was–when you could feel your leg muscles working but not straining. When you found the right match, you not only maximized your cycling productivity–but pedaling itself became a pleasure!

That’s the zone where funktionslust meets eustress!

And that’s what I encourage all of us to strive for in all our activities: to find that sweet spot where you’re performing at your peak, challenging yourself without creating negative stress–and finding pleasure in your ability to perform the activity itself.

Whether you’re exercising enough to feel your muscles (without injuring yourself), trying something new and perhaps even a bit scary (without being terrifying), or striving to improve at your favorite activities (without pushing yourself so hard that you burn out or cease to enjoy what you’re doing)–see if you can find that sweet-spot confluence of eustress and the pleasure of funktionslust–doing something so well that it feels like you were born to do it.

Because maybe you were!

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When have you felt funktionslust or eustress in your own life? Do you ever feel them both at the same time? How can you feel them more often?

I’d love to read your comments! If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to share it by clicking on the social media buttons. Thanks for visiting–stop by anytime! 🙂

Photo by Indy Writer