One of my clients once founded a company. It was a big success until it went bankrupt, but my client then established another successful business.
He once said to me, “When I established my first business, my only motivation was hope. I was so hopeful, and hope was the only thing I could rely on. Rather than taking the necessary actions to make things work, I hoped that nothing would go wrong with the business. I took some risks that meant profitability was only possible if everything went perfectly. However, complications occurred later on, and things went wrong.”
My client’s business is now going quite well after a number of sessions with me. When we search for the reason behind his recent success, he explains, “It’s because I don’t rely on hope anymore, but this doesn’t mean I’m not hopeful about the future or lack any positive thoughts about it. At the moment, I do everything possible in case something goes wrong, instead of hoping that the things I haven’t done will not cause any problems. I know things can still go wrong even after I’ve done everything possible, but at least I can say I did everything that needed to be done. I now know not doing this can cause serious disappointment!”
In fact, we’re all standing at a similar point in our lives. If we want something so much but neglect to do everything necessary to fulfill that wish, it means we are in a situation of hope with anxiety. This is a situation where we expect our wishes to come true with little effort, plenty of hope, and thinking positively, meditating, praying, and so on, rather than using all our resources.
Please don’t misunderstand me. Of course, I believe opportunities can come your way in life, but I also believe the universe will not let you get away with everything unless you do your best in life. On the contrary, I believe the universe was created to show people what they could do with their lives.
On the other hand, if you’ve been feeling exhausted for a while and observed your efforts achieving little despite pushing your limits very hard, you are most likely standing in the situation of depressive hope. In this situation, you should accept that your specific hope, which you feel your life depends on, will not come true. Your efforts will not be sufficient to make the dream come true, at least for the time being, so you should accept this fact. Hope will not help you sustain a relationship that is already over, a business idea that has failed, or a company that is just losing money.
However, if you know when to stop after you’ve done everything you can with everything at your disposal, then you have the right to be hopeful. In other words, you are now standing where the real hope is. This is when we use our potential and capacity most effectively. This is when progress, expansion, and new opportunities arise. When you find yourself standing at this point, you will also realize that opportunity and luck will be knocking at your door very shortly.
