H.O.P.E (Help on Personal Evolvement)

For your consideration……

Some may consider this picture scary. Others may find it exciting and wonderful. I chose it because of that reason. Much about the journey of our life is how we perceive it. Do we see the next step as an opportunity or challenge? Are we in a situation we just don’t know how to get out of? Are we in a rut and don’t how to turn it around? Are we going through terrible sorrow and sadness and don’t know how we will get through it?

The person on this ledge got there step by step, bit by bit. So it is with where we are on our life journey. We landed where we are step by step. And that is exactly how we move on to change it if that is our HOPE.

You need two pictures, literally or figuratively. Picture one is the situation as you see it now. Picture two is the situation as you HOPE it would be. Of course, they are some distance apart. But you can create the steps that connect them.

Chunk it out. Too often we are looking at a situation from such a high level, it looks overwhelming. We freeze because it looks undoable. But if we can focus down on just those two pictures and identify just one next step, we are back in control. Eventually, as those steps add up we will see that we are a third or even half way there. We see progress. It is no longer undoable. We have HOPE.

There is a second half to this. When we look at the situation that is giving us angst or concern we need to remember that is just a part of what is going on in our life. Contain it for what it is. You need not let it permeate other parts of you. Ask yourself is this who I really am?  You have a choice. You always have a choice. So the answer is no unless you want this to define you. You need not let it into your Core Essence Self. Instead, see it for what it really is. It is a challenging situation. It is a bump in the road.

We have heard it said many times and many different ways. How we handle these bumps as well as blessings defines who we are. There is always a lesson that we can take from every situation. Indeed, they are the tools we use for our next step. That is our HOPE.

Bit by bit, piece by piece,hope by hope action steps anyone can take…..

-Pause for as long as you can. What do you want to change? Journal it. Identify one next step.

-Look your salesperson, waitress, the person who holds a door for you etc. in the eye and smile.

-Get outdoors. Take a long look at the trees you see. They give you the air you need for life. Thank them.

-Hug someone

What made me smile yesterday…..

-My dear friend, Yvette, going through the terrible loss of her partner, Harold, could still smile. She could still see joy and HOPE. She could still honor her and Harold’s gifts. She is an inspiration and makes me smile.

-Bruce and I went to dinner last night and choose to sit on the patio. A bird had built a nest over one of the outdoor lights. She sat there through dinner with her babies. This was to the delight of a child clearly under two. Leaving she kept waving and saying, “goodbye birdies”. Everyone was smiling.

-We saw our friend, Bob. He always is good for a belly laugh.

Love, Blessings and Gratitude,

Chris