Bestselling author Orrin Woodward said, “All leadership all boils down to hope. You can live thirty days without food. You can live three days without water. You can live three minutes without air, but you can’t live three seconds without hope.”
Hope for a brighter future will arm you with expectancy in the present. Do you have your “hopes up” in anticipation for great things to come? All of us have the seeds of greatness on the inside and many times all it takes to grow those seeds is hope and a steadfast belief that things will get better. Sadly, it’s hard for people to believe life’s best is in their deck of cards.
Today it is does not take a PhD in psychology to notice the lack of hope many people possess. People have been sold a bill of goods this past year by politicians, corporate executives, and bureaucrats promising a “change or hope for the future.” Due to poor results, false promises, and poor character choices; many people trusting those messengers have been left with a very poor taste in their mouth. In fact, now a days it is more common for people to say, “Don’t get your hopes” because people are tired of being let down.
I am here to tell you it is okay to get your hopes up! For the remainder of this article I want to lay out four practical points to turn your HOPE into a promise, instead of hype. In fact, if you apply these four cornerstones of hope in your life I promise you will increase the odds of having your hopes fulfilled.
All leaders have the innate ability to see the unseen or to see things in the future before they exist in the present. That’s called having a vision. You see, a person that relies on what he/she can only see in the present will always be at the mercy of the person that has a hope or faith things will get better. Why? What we chose to focus on compounds. In other words, if you focus on the problems of today they will compound feelings of disappointment. On the flipside, if you focus on the treasures of what will result by conquering those very same problems, you will think of solutions to help get you out of the problems of today. That vision is what causes hope and expectancy when life hits us the hardest.
However, I want to be very clear that hoping and waiting is not a strategy that will yield positive results. You have to hope and implement! By executing the four cornerstones of hope you will be rewarded with a realistic expectation of a brighter future
1. Habits – One time I heard a speaker say something that really impacted me. He said, “All of us are here learning about success and right now all of us believe we can achieve our dreams. How come then will very few of us will ever achieve them?” I was completely stunned that he said that. I mean, you just felt the air go right out of the auditorium. Then I learned how important habits were to the achievement of my dream when he said, “The reason why many people won’t has nothing to do with talent, all of us are talented. The reason is that our daily habits don’t align with our dreams.” I define frustration as having a big dream, but possessing poor daily habits. You can’t acquire the dream before you develop the right habits; you have to develop the right habits before you acquire the dream. Claim victory over your life and over time, with the right habits, you will have it.
2. Opportunity – Orrin Woodward has said many times, “Our greatest fear is not that we don’t succeed, our greatest fear is that we succeed at something that doesn’t matter.” Stop focusing too much on the good that it causes you to forget about the great. Focus on the great so it causes you to forget about the good!! Not all opportunities fit into our lives, but we can grow ourselves to fit into just about any opportunity. Most of what we do, to some extent, makes us stretch out of our comfort zone, but opportunities that give us the greatest hope never require us to stretch out of our gift zone- they require us to strengthen our talents! Opportunities that don’t align with your strengths are what should scare you. When you don’t do things that align with your talent then the best you can ever be is average. What type of hope does average provide for any of us?
3. Productivity – Like you, there are certain things I am good at doing and there are things that no matter how much work I put into them it still yields terrible results. Let me give you an example - I am terrible at cooking. There have been times when I have invested so much effort in the kitchen and after spending hours there was absolutely zero improvement. That was a very humbling moment for me because it made me realize I don’t have to be good at everything, but I do need to be great at something. Too many people are a mile wide with activities they take on, but unfortunately they end up being an inch deep in productivity or effectiveness. I made a decision that I would rather be an inch wide and a mile deep in something that I was productive at doing and that made a difference in the lives of others. For me, life is too short doing things that result in average accomplishments. It has nothing to do with me not believing in my abilities, but it has everything to do with me knowing my abilities!
4. Expectancy - Too many people believe the best things for their life, but sit around and wait for them to come to pass. Believing is only half the story. The rest of the story is making preparations and acting on your beliefs. That is what living expectantly means. Living your life should not be a passive thing. When we live expectantly, we have anticipation for what the future will hold.
Apply these four cornerstones of H.O.P.E. and get ready to live life expectantly.
Lead On,
Matt Franks
