These two words are very important to you. You might not realize it today, but at the core everything you do is something to do with enough & hope.
Enough
All motivation that leads to action is due to a combination of a desire you have & your belief that the action will cause your world to be closer to what you desire.
Repeating an action is where *enough* comes to play.
You do something, you see the results. You judge – did this give me enough results?
If yes, continue, if no – do something else, even if just slightly different.
In an organization they make a product or service, ship it to market, see the results, normally either sales, profits, or donations. If they did not get enough they can adjust or stop producing that good or service.
If you try a new program and don’t see enough results then you will stop. Does not matter if this is health related, learning a new language, a skill, or working to improve a relationship.
A moment where you lose the belief that you might achieve your goal – that is where you lose hope, or it has been deferred too long.
Hope
This video has Kevin Marks on TWIg talking about depression on a conversation growing out of a bad situation where a brilliant man – Aaron Swartz – lost all hope.
Watch about a minute or two: starting at 41:31:
A belief that you can overcome things … that you are special in the world. “… can’t be that bad … “
As time goes on, our level of hope naturally drops. Delays, losses, disappointment can all drain away your hope. Wins, success, praise, attention, and progress can fill your hope tank.
Level & Belief
In the end, we must keep a belief that we can achieve our desires above a measured threshold, or level, or enough.
There are some thing you can do to help yourself.
1. write down where you want to end up and why.
The why part of this is more important than the goal.
Goals, dreams, desires, and envisioned future can and will change, yet the goal in and of itself does not affect the question of “Do you have Enough Hope?” … achieving your why does.
2. record smaller goals, or intentions, and results
It is one thing to say “I intend to run today.” It is another to say “I intend to go running for 20 minutes today.” or “I intend to run for 1 mile today.”
When it’s hard for your to see progress, looking at what you intended to do alongside what you achieved, even if you missed the mark … helps you see that you are getting closer to your dream.
On good days, and good weeks, I do this through the Top 6 Methodology. And I think of the world in 5 distinct relationships that I try to keep and develop:
- yourself
- family
- business
- social
- spiritual
That is ranked in order until you hit spiritual. Spiritual is in every level, but is both more nebulous and harder to measure than the others too.
3. have a system to remind you of your why
I have come to see the wisdom in being reminded of the envisioned future every 21 days.
Setting up a system that automatically pushes that future & why in your face really helps.
4. understand seasons and accept them
There are times to plant seeds and times to harvest. Times to go snow skiing and others water skiing.
Times to rest, times to produce, and times to consume.
Change happens & this is why understanding the core whys to your envisioned future or goals is important. It might be that you cannot run a particular race, but was that goal set due to the particular race or your desire to get in better shape?
5. accept that you, as a human, have needs
Out of all the needs you have, there are three types that you can control:
- rest
- production & investing
- consumption
We all do need to be known, loved, and acknowledged … but on a level that we can control, we need Production, Investing, Rest & Consumption.
6. review & reflect
Most of the action ideas above are incomplete without taking the time to review. My family tries to sit down before Thanksgiving and reflect on the previous year. Then celebrate, or give thanks, for what happened before moving into a time of planning out next steps.
The process of reflection, then planning, then action is important. The more you go around the circle and repeat that simple process the faster you will improve, or get stronger.
Keep Sailing
I hope that you have been on a sailboat.
Sailing is a wonderful illustration for life. For a sailboat to go a skipper must do the right things, but also the wind must be blowing. You do not make the wind, but you can harness it to propel you towards a goal.
While sailing, odds are you cannot go directly at the goal. You might have to go a little to the left, change course then a little to the right.
Then there are times that the you cannot sail.
You need to repair the boat. You need to work at your day job. You need to wait for the wind.
There are still things you can do to cause you to become a better sailor … to increase your abilities… to make it where when the wind comes you will be ready to really take advantage of it.
Keep yourself with … enough … hope … that you will achieve your deep down most important burning desires
~Jonathan Nation
2013-01
~< Keep Sailing ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
