Find confidence and choose hope.
Have you ever been in the process of building something you wholeheartedly believe in, or felt clearly called to a specific purpose or mission, and it hasn’t happened yet?
You hear those voices in your head saying,
“We’re in the middle of a pandemic! You can’t build something now.”
“Who do you think you are?”
“You can’t share those ideas!”
“Those big dreams are futile.”
These doubts turn into anxiety, and all of a sudden you find yourself questioning why all of you hard work even matters. You want to sink down into anonymity and give in to the cynicism that things will never change…and yet deep down you trust you are for a reason and you have a purpose that only you can fulfill. How do you keep going?
Being a life coach, author, and motivational speaker, you might think I’m immune to these anxious thoughts. The truth is, I’ve dealt with them as well! I’ve come to realize this anxious voice is not who I am but someone pretending to be me, but I remember I’m not my thoughts!
Today, I want to share how invaluable hope and possibility are to reaching a deeper area in your life. For those of you who know me, you know I am an incredibly logical person…and yet hope goes beyond logic. It is often beyond reason, or unreasonable, to have hope and believe in a dream of rising above the status quo.
Yet George Bernard Shaw said, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” If we are to dream big dreams, to progress forward, to rise and lead others – we must be willing to be unreasonable and have hope that better days are coming.
Throughout my life, I have seen hope as symbolic of the moments of great personal and collective transformation. It is grounded in having the courage to stay the path when everything around you urges you to abandon ship and find another way. Hope can have a super charging effect. In my book Time Isn’t The Problem, my message is clear: rise up, stand up, and take action now, regardless if the odds are against you.
While pessimists are generally more accurate than optimists, today I frankly don’t care because despite that deep anxiety you or myself feel when the evidence is stacked against that project or cause or whatever we’re doing – I’m going to choose to live in hope and confidence, and I want to share 7 principles for how you can too.
- Make the choice to spread hope and optimism
It all starts with the decision to choose hope over despair or giving in. Simply decide you are going to walk in hope and look for opportunities to be hopeful and optimistic every day.
- Ask yourself, “What is it time for?”
How would you finish this sentence? What is it time for you to courageously step into right now? The way you answer this question is how you’re going to experience the rest of your life.
- Choose what will you decide to stand for
You are leading the moment you choose to rise up. What hopeful idea do you choose to rise up for? It’s time for whatever you decide it’s time for, and you are leading the moment you decide to step up and take a stand for something new, something old, something different, something more – anything you choose to create.
- Put down what you’re not doing or owning
Somebody somewhere needs YOU to step up, so own what it’s time for YOU to do and rise up into that space. The world doesn’t need another Chad Cooper, but it does need YOU. Put down the things holding you back and rise up into what it’s time for. The past does not equal your future, and the future is never real – only what you imagine it to be.
- Step up right nowand lead because it’s time.
It’s time for you to lead, for you to help us be our best, time for you to be your best. It’s time to put down the excuses and the stories you tell yourself about why others can do it but you can’t – it’s time for you to step into that power of hope, to stop playing small, and open your heart and mind to new ideas and people who aren’t like you.
- Rise into a new reality of true leadership
True leadership is not about skill building or capability – it’s a state of mind that stems from a deep conviction of who you are and why you’re here. Remove the fear and replace it with competence and hope.
- Make the choice and simply do it
You don’t need a new course, or a new product, or another guru or teacher or skill to be a leader or part of the team. All you need is to decide to be in cause and simply lead.
- Measure your progress
Regularly check in with yourself to measure is this working. Am I making any traction? Am I getting worse? Do I need to pivot? What can I leverage to keep moving forward?
Stepping out in faith and going against the grain is hard work. If I didn’t know what my purpose was, I’d have given up years ago. Choosing hope is not about sitting at home manifesting or waiting for your dreams to fall in your lap – there will be pain and it takes hard work, but hope reminds you there is a reason you are here and a reason you are doing this.
What is it time for? Who is in the darkness that you can reach today by shining your light? It all begins with hope. It isn’t easy to show up and be optimistic every day when you’re faced with challenge after challenge. But when you believe hope is possible and are aware of those pitfalls and places you’re getting caught, you can forgive yourself when you stumble and miss the mark and pick yourself up to keep going. We aren’t meant to journey alone and having a brotherhood or sisterhood around you to link arms with you as a reminder you’re not in this alone.
This world needs you, and my invitation to you is to choose hope, and answer the call of what is it time for? Then go and do it.
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