Running your race (2)

RUNNING WITH HOPE

I define hope as the ability to anticipate the positives at the same time, participate fully and joyfully even against odds and negativity. Would you say that you are a hopeful person? Do you hope for the best and trust that it will all work out somehow or someday? The power of hope is life-changing, and we all can use more of it in our lives. Hope is defined as a belief that things will get better. Having hope shows that you earnestly expect that your good goal will be realised and have a plan to make it so. How can your life be better? What are you willing to do to make it better? Once you have completed one goal, maintain your momentum for positive change. Set another practical goal, plan how to achieve it, and get to work. You will develop the power of hope in your life through the consistent pursuit of success.

Hope is guaranteed when there is a commitment (capacity) to reach your next level in life (academics, business and career – (ABC), as well as contentment (character) with your present level. Contentment is the succour (therapy), while commitment is the ‘score’ (happiness) in the race of life. Everyone needs ‘therapiness’ to get to the top unscathed. Nothing can stop a self-motivated individual who is hopeful and grateful.

HOPE IS P.R.A.Y

Hope is Protective – It is like a helmet that protects the head from injury. Head injury is fatal and may result into death. Joy is hope and hope is joy. Without joy, hope is lost and without hope, joy is lost.

Hope is Reflective – It is like a glowing and reflective material in the dark, it shows to you that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Hope is Aggressive – Hope doesn’t make you rest but it gives you rest of mind.

Hope is You – Without your cooperation (commitment and contentment), hope is never in operation.

You become a prey to life’s circumstances when you don’t pray.

Contentment minus commitment is hope deferred.

Commitment minus contentment is hope defrauded.

Contentment plus commitment is hope released.

Commitment plus contentment is hope realized.

Joy comes with a distinction from hope released and hope realized. While joy goes into extinction from hope deferred and hope defrauded.

HELEN KELLER

Helen Keller was an author, lecturer, and crusader for the handicapped. Born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, She lost her sight and hearing at the age of nineteen months to an illness now believed to have been scarlet fever. Five years later, on the advice of Alexander Graham Bell, her parents applied to the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston for a teacher, and from that school hired Anne Mansfield Sullivan. Through Sullivan’s extraordinary instruction, the little girl learned to understand and communicate with the world around her. She went on to acquire an excellent education and to become an important influence on the treatment of the blind and deaf.

Keller learned from Sullivan to read and write in Braille and to use the hand signals of the deaf-mute, which she could understand only by touch. Her later efforts to learn to speak were less successful, and in her public appearances she required the assistance of an interpreter to make herself understood. Nevertheless, her impact as educator, organizer, and fund-raiser was enormous, and she was responsible for many advances in public services to the handicapped.

In 1904, at the age of 24, Keller was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree and throughout her education she had learnt to speak, leading her to give speeches and lectures on aspects of her life. Keller also learnt to “hear” other people’s speeches, by reading their lips with her hands.

WHEN HOPE FAILS

Every rational human being naturally finds happiness in being successful in life. Success to many could be in finding true love, making more money, being famous, getting married, becoming a graduate, getting a good job, travelling abroad, building a house, having children, buying a car, etc. The list is endless. Just like break failure, hope failure can be calamitous. Hope failure is destiny failure. It is easy to be hopeful when it seems we are wining or making progress in life. It is however difficult to be positive and hopeful when it seems we are losing or retarding. When it seems all hope is lost, it only seems so, still hope. Hope is an action word, it takes hope to hope. Hope is the currency of life. To hope is to work out one’s happiness and therapy. Hope is therapeutic, it soothens and smoothens. It takes being hopeful to cope during trying times and be grateful for life. There is light at the end of the tunnel. I have seen entrepreneurs who gave up on their pursuits just because of criticisms and mockeries. Just like hope, hopelessness is equally real. It is not easy to be hopeful. It is not easy to keep ‘pushing’ when you are being laughed at by those who had been there and apparently know more than you do. Lack of hope is the worst feeling in life. It reduces the chances of success and slows people down. Hopelessness is a weight; it is an impediment to progress. The ability to wait against all odds is one of the hallmarks of an entrepreneurial leader. In fact, wanting success is as important as the process (waiting). While some have a PhD in wanting and desiring success, they actually have a ‘PHD’ (Poor Heart Desire) with respect to the process that leads to success. There is no short cut to success, due process must be followed. There is joy in waiting. There is therapy in waiting for process to take its full course. However, it is also important to have what I call “Waiting Intelligence”. That is, the ability to know what is worth waiting for and what is not.

There are corridors and core doors in the passage of life.

You have no reason to imprison hope or open prison.

Life is all about the fulfillment and enjoyment of achievements

Hopes are doors, hope adores; knock when people mock.

FIVE ENEMIES OF HOPE

Exaggerating the situation

Believing you have failed

Focusing on the past

Listening to criticisms

Staying in the comfort zone

FIVE THINGS THAT TRIGGER HOPE

Believing all things will work together for good