Looking For Hope?

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Hope is the belief that something you want can and will happen.

Hope gives you the confidence to keep going when nobody believes in you. It gives you the strength to carry on when you’re about to give up. When shit really hits the fan, it’s the only thing that holds you together. Without it, life would be meaningless.

After all, believing in a better – or at least bearable – tomorrow is the only reason to keep living. Without hope, there can be no drive; no motivation.

Need a light to guide you through the darkness of tough times? Want an intense jolt of motivation to drive you towards success? Then you’re looking for hope.

A Hopeless Generation

“No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster.” – Dalai Lama XIV

The average American watches 4+ hours of T.V. a day. Instead of doing something amazing with his life, he wastes away on his couch. Can there be better proof of our generation’s hopelessness?

We’ve been raised on instant gratification; if something requires effort, we don’t want it. When shit gets real, do we handle it? No. We eat chocolate, have more drinks, buy compulsively, etc.

We have no faith in ourselves; no hope for something better. We enjoy watching other people succeed but we don’t believe we can do the same ourselves. And personally, I think that’s bullshit.

Why?

Sean Stephenson and his fiancé

Let’s be real for a second. You can do just about anything. People with fewer opportunities and less natural ability than you have succeeded countless times:

• Sean Stephenson is 3 feet tall, can’t walk and is “so brittle that coughing could fracture a rib.” He’s a successful motivational speaker/writer – and engaged to a gorgeous girl.
• Dennis Rodman was a mediocre athlete in high school and then a janitor. He only made himself eligible for the NBA draft  at the age of 25. Shockingly, he proceeded to kick all kinds of ass for 12 years and is an NBA legend.
• Albert Einstein couldn’t talk properly or read until he was 6-7. Later, he had to retake his university entrance exam; later, his doctoral dissertation was rejected.
• 7 years after graduation, J.K. Rowling was a single, unemployed divorcee with a kid. She was depressed and considered suicide. When she wrote the first Harry Potter book, TWELVE publishers refused it.

All these people – and countless others – refused to give up. They managed to hope in the face of adversity, so why shouldn’t you?

We all have dreams. Sometimes, life and other people pressure us into giving them up. You probably have things you put aside as you grew up; things you want but can’t imagine yourself doing or having.

But no matter what it is you’re going through – intense heartbreak, mourning, depression – you can succeed. And the first step to doing that is – you guessed it – learning to hope.

Learning To Hope: The Exercises

“Cherish your visions and you dreams, as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements” - Napoleon Hill

If you’re not used to living with hope, you might need a little help getting started. Here are a few great exercises.

1. Write down the things you want and read them once a day. Keep them specific, positive and write as if you already have them. The more effort and detail you put into your list, the better. Good examples:

• I go out alone at least three times a week and meet new people all the time.
• I work hard and make 5,000$ a month.
• I work out 3 times a week and girls love my body.
• I fell in love with someone who loves me back. It’s a great feeling and I couldn’t be happier.

2. Set aside 10-15 minutes for daydreaming every day. Visualize yourself having the things you want as vividly as possible; imagine how you’d act, feel and think.

3. Pay attention to the times you think something’s impossible, too hard or unrealistic. Write down the negative thoughts, cross them out and replace them with positive ones. E.g.

I’ll never be able to stay on my diet for 6 weeks

=>

I can easily stay on my diet for 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks. I’m going to kick ass at the gym and amaze everyone with my body this summer.

4. When you do something that contributes to your dreams, reinforce your behavior by writing down how good it felt.

e.g. If you’re overcoming shyness and talked to a stranger, write: It was scary at first, but it felt amazing once we started talking!

 

Like most things in life, learning to hope isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon. The reason I give you these 4 exercises is how simple they are: doing all of them takes 20 minutes a day.

But in all likelihood, you’ll only need 2/3 of 4 exercises to get started. There’s nothing fancy about learning to hope: patience and repetition are what truly matters.

Moving Mountains With Hope

It always seems impossible until it’s done. –Nelson Mandela

You know why hope is so good? Because, hate it or love it, you’re limitless. There are few things you – yes, you – can’t do if you put your mind to them. So long as you dream and make an effort, only the laws of time and space can stop you.

So read inspirational stories; daydream; think of how much you can achieve if you use the power of hope to keep you going. Use the exercises in this post and do everything you can to live a life full of hope.