PEOPLE WHO ARE FULLY VITAL and alive and full of energy are interested. They’re pursuing an interest. The stronger the interest, the more vitality emanates from it. People without any interests at all are bored, tired and lifeless. Interest is everything.

Here’s the problem: You can’t fake or force yourself to be interested in something. You can gently open yourself to be mildly interested, but you’re either strongly interested in something or you’re not, and it’s not up to you. It’s either there or it isn’t.

There are subjects and activities which, if you pursued one of them, would awaken your sleeping vitality. But you may be ignoring them for “good reasons.”

A woman I know liked to draw and was very good at it while she was still only in kindergarten. When she told her father she wanted to be an artist when she grew up, he said, “You don’t want to be an artist. Artists don’t make any money.” He dismissed the idea with so much certainty, she dropped her interest immediately. She cut it off, turned away from it.

Many of us have had a similar experience. We turned away from what really interested us and now we don’t really know what interests us. We look around at our options and don’t see anything interesting because the thing that interests us is behind us, so to speak — we’ve turned out backs on it and can’t see it any more.

I know a man who liked to sail as a youngster, but let it fade out of his life when he became an adult. He thought about it once in a while but figured he would do some sailing “later” when he had a lot of money and extra time (dream on dude).

He recently decided to take up sailing, even on a small scale, and he has come alive.

Boredom is death. Interest is life. Dig up that dormant interest. You know the one — you’ve dropped it or laid it aside for perfectly sound reasons. You might even feel it’s childish to pursue it. That’s the one. Pursue it, even a little, and your awakened interest will brighten your whole life.