And keep HOPE alive!
When you have a compelling vision for a future that really means something to you, there is hope. Usually this vision is connected to your purpose in life, or it might be about creating a better lifestyle or standard of living.
The hope that lives inside of you is cultivated and nurtured when you have belief in your ability to bring your vision to life. When belief is strong, hope expands. When emotions get involved and you can actually FEEL what it will be like to live out your dreams, your hope grows exponentially. Visualizing the tiniest details help to make it feel more and more real. When the emotions attached to your vision are strong enough, and you can see it down to the last detail in your mind’s eye, the probability of making your dream a reality becomes inevitable. It’s no longer just a dream or a vision – you feel it deeply within you and you know it’s only a matter of time until it is your reality. The attachment of emotion is like an explosive fuel added to the fire of hope.
Keeping that hope alive is paramount to bringing your dreams to life. Without it, the dream begins to fade and the inevitability that it will one day be your reality is downgraded to a mere possibility.
So how do you keep your hope alive and well?
Here is a simple formula to use as a basis for maintaining focus on your dreams.
Dreams (vision) = Time + Action = Reality
What is required to keep your vision clearly in focus is ACTION. Time is a variable in the formula as well, but it will pass anyway – with or without your action – so that means the secret sauce is truly in your action towards your dreams. Keep in mind, there is an inverse relationship between Time and Action. If you wish to shorten the timeframe in making your dreams a reality, then increased action is required. If you have a longer timeframe in mind, then you can decrease your daily actions. Often people give up on their dreams because their expectations are off-balance with the payoff window of time expected. They expect to begin seeing their vision come to life in a very short span of time, simply because they’ve taken a few actions. Give it time, but also ensure consistency in your actions everyday. If you are consistent in those daily actions that are moving you closer to your dreams, you accept that it is not going to happen overnight, and you have strong emotions attached to your vision, success in making it your reality becomes inevitable.
As described by Ed Mylett on his #1 mindset podcast, The Ed Mylett Show, confidence is simply belief in your ability to figure things out. So how do you build your confidence? Here’s how: you figure things out as you go. When you consistently take action (before you’re ready), that produces evidence that you CAN figure things out. You fumble your way through, you make mistakes, you grow and you learn, but you consistently take steps towards your goals and dreams. At the same time, your confidence grows because you’re figuring it out as you go, which keeps that hope strong!
Action creates a positive feedback loop that encourages more and more action, builds your confidence, and inches you closer and closer to making your dream a reality. As you see progress, you’re encouraged to continue taking action.
Never losing hope is required to keep the dream alive, and the vision clear. Allowing enough time for sufficient actions to be made is critical to keep that spark of hope alive. If we start along a journey with the expectation that significant results will be visible in too short of a timeframe, we are setting ourselves up for failure. Similarly, if we expect to know it all before we begin, and think we’ll never make any mistakes along the way, nothing will ever change because our expectations are not reality. You will make mistakes. You will fail. You will learn as you go. And it will all take some time.
Starting before you feel fully prepared to take on a new challenge is key. You are never going to feel 100% prepared to begin any big endeavor. There is always more to learn and more growth that is required. Waiting to get started, until you feel ready or prepared enough, is a surefire way to suck all of the oxygen and life out of your dreams. When you get stuck waiting until you’re ready, hope starts to diminish due to inaction. That inaction also lowers your confidence in your ability to figure it out, because no evidence exists that you can, since you haven’t taken any actions that produce that evidence. When confidence is low, fear of never bringing your vision to life starts to take a grip on you. Fear breeds more fear, and you become paralyzed by all of the negative thoughts swirling in your mind. You get bogged down over-analyzing and overwhelm eventually snuffs out that spark of hope that once existed.
So just like action builds a positive feedback loop and generates forward momentum, inaction creates a negative feedback loop which keeps you paralyzed in fear and overthinking.
The antidote to all of this – JUST START.
Start small and let your actions begin to stack up to create visible results. As momentum builds, continue to expand your mind and upgrade your habits. Choose to view mistakes and failures as learning opportunities. Allow yourself to soak in your progress and feel proud of the hard work you’ve put in, and the actions taken towards your dream.
Stay strong in the consistency of your actions, and one day you’ll look around and realize that you’ve successfully brought your vision to life. Your dreams are now your reality.
Cheers to that!
XO -Chelsey
