I’m a glass half full kind of guy. I like hope. I often sit around and rely on hope. I hope to be healthier. I hope to be financially successful. I hope to get a promotion. I hope to have good relationships. I hope to travel overseas in 2022 ?
However, sitting around and hoping for a better outcome is not a plan. It’s expecting somebody else to do something and do the work for us.
Yes, we might hope we are making the right decision, but the reality is that we all need to decide and follow this through with action, so that our decisions today become our hoped-for reality.
The truth is that if we want to have more certainty in our lives and give ourselves a better chance of success, we need more than just hope, we need to do the work.
From personal experience I accept that yes change can happen in a moment, however coming to this decision of change and doing it, can take years if not decades, if all we have done in the past is hope.
The good news is that we are not our past, and every day we have an opportunity to make better choices and do the work needed, to bring us closer to experiencing our ideal life.
I remember reading a Tony Robbins quote that has stuck with me ever since “Success is simple, but not easy. We need to know specifically what we want, know how much it will cost us, then pay the price for it. Not just willing to pay the price, but actually paying for it”.
On the 25th of May 1961, J.F.K. announced the goal of landing on the moon, but it would cost $28 billion dollars ($280 billion in today’s dollars adjusted for inflation), 400,000 workers and only became a reality, eight years later, on the 20th of July 1969.
My point is, achieving a goal comes at a price. The bigger the goal the greater the cost.
So, if I want to be healthier, I must pay the price of denying myself an unhealth lifestyle, unhealthy relationships, then begin doing the work to become healthier.
If I want to have greater financial security, I must save and invest, instead of continuing to spend my money on wasteful expenses.
And if I want that promotion, then not only do I need to take 100% ownership of my responsibilities, I need to provide evidence of why I should be promoted along with reassuring others of why they can be confident in their decision to promote me. i.e., can we be trusted? Read more about Trust here... Character & Competence.
However, when we take action having hope is also required, because hope empowers us and a give us a moral boost to act.
Furthermore, when we fail (learn a better way) along the way to achieving our goals, it’s the hope in our actions, that keeps us going in the face of uncertainty.
When a reporter asked, Thomas Edison "How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?" Edison replied, "I didn't fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps." "Great success is built on failure, frustration, even catastrophe."
In life there are many things outside of our control. The events of the economy, governments, legislation, others’ opinions, the past etc, all to a great extent are all out of our control. However, the choices, behaviour, and habits we choose today, pay forward successes we experience tomorrow.
Hope is important but hope alone is a foolish plan.
The past is be dry cement, however my hope is that the weight of your past is not weighing you down but my hope alone is no help in itself. This is why I have acted on my hope by investing my time and writing this blog for you. To empower you to act. To do something that you and those important to you get to personally benefit from.
Now it’s time for you to get on the field.
The whistle of life has blown, and the ball of life is now in your hands. Your coach, support crew, cheerleaders and crowd can only but watch from the sidelines. Now is the time for you to put into action all you desire, have studied, and practised. Now ‘Run Forrest Run!”
If you’re still stuck in a funk or you’re lost in a cloud of complexity, feel free to contact me. Most often in life we just need someone to talk things through and to lighten our load a little.
This post was written by Me, as such they are my personal views and not financial or general advice.
You should always seek independent financial advice when it comes to choices about your personal finances. This is one area of your life where it’s worth paying for it to be done right.
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