What Is the Reason for Your Hope?

The headlines are creating all sorts of anxiety. Gasoline prices are "setting records again" according to the new channels. Food prices are climbing, companies are cutting costs through layoffs and severing relationships with suppliers.

It can be frightening.

Yet, there are reasons for hope.

Where do you find hope? What provides you the drive to move forward? Who do you look to in order to provide encouragement and keep you focused on successes?

Look to yourself

Take the time on a daily basis to write out your "accomplishments list." This should be a list of things that you've actually completed. Think about this list in terms of what have you done today that you are proud of. What things did you do to contribute to your organization, to your family, to the common good?

Look to others

Do you have a support network? If you aren't working to cultivate and nurture your network of friends and associates, you may be wasting one of the most important resources you have. Take time to reach out to someone you haven't talked to in over 24 months. They'll be glad to hear from you.

Do you have a mentor or a coach? Top performers, even while they are at the top of their game rely on the valued relationships with mentors and coaches.

Look to the Future

So often people withdraw during tough times. They get blind to opportunity because they focus on the difficulties. Difficulties are the flip side of opportunity. Learn to see things from multiple perspectives and then to focus on moving into action.

Is there someplace else you know you should look for hope? I would bet there is. Take some time in silence to open yourself to understanding that source of hope.  

Comments

[Robert Stanke]

Bob,

Great post with great suggestions. Being an optimist at heart, I usually do not have a problem with the looking to the future part of your post. My difficulty often lies within the first suggestion actually. Sitting here thinking about it, I really don't focus much on what I have already accomplished. I have so much focus on the tasks at hand, that once I am done with something, I forget about it. Perhaps something to change, I just had never thought about it prior to reading this posting. Thanks again!

Robert Stanke
http://www.robertstanke.com