Hope Is Where The Heart – Isn’t

As creative, we are able to blend fantasy and reality quite easily in order to dream up amazing things and envision impressive futures, but then, we ‘hope’ that those dreams will materialize. The problem is that ‘hope’ itself is actually pretty ‘hopeless’, and yet, many of us believe wholeheartedly in it and allow it to hang tightly onto our precious dreams.

Imagine feeling that intensity as a ‘billion dollar idea’ pops into your head. What do you do? You rush to grab a pen and some paper (right?), then excitedly try to collect every single detail as your brain erupts and rapidly overflows with gold lava. To celebrate the fact that you’re now ‘rich’, you sip on a glass of wine and pat yourself on the back for the great idea.

Then, you neatly fold your billion dollar sheet of paper, and lock it away in the depths of your safe so that no-one can steal it – it is a billion dollar idea after all. Let’s not forget that you do take a few minutes from time to time to reflect on the idea, with a radiant grin of contentment as you think “one day if I’m patient enough,” solely because of the promise you made to never forget your brilliant idea.

Unfortunately, not once do you bother to develop a plan of action. That, my dear friends…is hope. You’ve most likely already been acquainted, which is something we should all challenge ourselves to work on. I’m right there with you guys. This post was inspired by a friend of mine and is a reminder for myself as well!

Hope doesn’t provide internal or external motivation. If you’ve been just relying on it, wake up and realize that you’re just procrastinating, and dragging your feet doesn’t cut it when you’re running the whole show.

If you have a heart for entrepreneurship and don’t want to spend your life bringing someone else’s dream to fruition – guess what?! You need to get rid of ‘hope’. Take some time out to be honest with yourself about why hope has become so appealing to you. Is it because you’re naturally a procrastinator?

Maybe because you’re actually afraid of failure…or possibly afraid of success. Whatever the case, you’ll realize that no matter what your reasons are, hope is just a cop-out, and you should spend your valuable time planning and executing your vision. If you want success, you have to get your hands dirty and make it happen.

So friends, how exactly do you get your hands dirty?

1. Make a decision. In terms of your goals, are you in or out? The road will not be paved with gold. In fact…you may have to climb a mountain and struggle the whole way. Are you ready to climb? Decide to be 100% in or 100% out.
2. Create goal-sheets that incorporate your vision. I like to do separate sheets for finances, relationship, career and personal. Try to be realistic in terms of your timeframe.
3. Solidify your dream. Now, take some time to make sense of your dream and construct a well thought out idea. Is it realistic? Should I be dreaming bigger? Would simplifying things make it better?
4. Consider a patent. If you have a really amazing idea for an invention, you may want to look into getting a patent for your idea.
5. Make a plan. So you decided to run with the billion-dollar idea. Think about the entire step-by-step process of bringing your dream to life. If you have a mentor that you can trust, now may be a good time to seek some advice from them.
6. Use your plan to re-evaluate your goal sheets. You may want to accomplish your goal in 1 year, but after creating a plan, realize that it will take 2, even with a solid plan. If you’re determined to stick to your original goal sheet…come up with a better plan. Whatever you do though, make sure that your goal sheets and plan work cohesively, or you will become easily frustrated.
7. Make yourself proud. Promise yourself that you won’t let ‘hope’ stand in the way of your greatness and carry out your plan with 100% dedication.
8. Continually motivate yourself. Surround yourself with doers…not just dreamers. Consider this quote by Les Brown: “The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry our their dream.”

Let’s get rid of ‘hope’ and start taking responsibility!