I’m looking at another of my quote images in my article, and it’s using the good old one, two, three combo…
It’s long been known that 3 works well when putting points across, either in the spoken or written word. Using 2 points is a bit too quick, not enough to get a flow going in the mind, and not long enough to be considered a ‘list’. 4 on the other hand, well that’s already starting to get a bit long for quick snappy content, so 3 is the one that seems to work the best.
So, that’s what I’ve gone for with this one, and I do think that ‘hope, expect, implement’ serves the purpose, (a triple purpose as it happens!) of being easy to understand, easy to remember, and yet powerful when put into practice.
When I say ‘powerful’, I mean it too – it’s a combination that can be a route to massive life change, and as we look a bit closer, we can see it ‘s something we already do all the time. Let’s take that closer look..
Hope.
Hoping is good, but it’s bad at the same time. It’s bad, but it’s good at the same time! That’s because we can view the concept of hope as a positive intention driver, or a negative contentment drainer.
It’s a choice as to how we view it, and it’s this choice which is at the core of making changes in our life.
It’s easy to hope. Hoping that things fall our way, hoping that random things either start happening to us,or stop happening to us. Hoping that life treats us a bit more fairly, maybe even hoping that we win the lottery!
The problem with this kind of hoping is that it depends on the actions of others. It implies that we can’t do anything about it, and it also implies that things could be a lot better than they are, i.e. that there is a current discontentment that must be endured.
Hmm, you can see how that’s a contentment drainer, and you also won’t be surprised to hear that I think it’s better to go the other way, to view the concept of hope as an intention driver. We use hope to set things that we want to be the case, we take on board the idea that we *can* do something about it. This is just as much a choice as viewing hope in the ‘wouldn’t it be nice’ way, and it leads me to the second of those 3 words…
Expect.
For me, the idea of ‘expect’ comes down to attitude, and 2 attitudes in particular that we need to get in place if we are to move away from the ‘wouldn’t it be nice’ hope I’ve already mentioned.
The first attitude is that we are worthy. A lot of people raise a quizzical eyebrow at that point, wondering what I mean. Well, we have to believe that we are worthy of the goal we set. So many people don’t do anything about acting on their hopes, their dreams, their passion, because they don’t think they are worthy enough.
They think the goal is ‘only for other people’, or ‘it can’t happen to me’, or ‘I’m not good enough.’
All of those self put-downs come from a position of thinking yourself not worthy enough.
It’s nonsense. It’s easy to understand why people feel like this, it’s something that can develop over many many years, but that doesn’t make it any less nonsense!
Of course your worthy of your dreams! Why wouldn’t you be? Who says you aren’t, because if it’s you that’s saying you aren’t, that is surely driven by someone else saying it, because deep down you know full well that you *are* worthy.
So, once we’ve reasserted to ourselves that we’re worthy, the next attitude we have to get in place to complete the ‘expect’ part of my quote, is one of believing that the goal will happen.
Believing that it could happen is one thing, but that’s not enough.
Believing that it might happen is one thing, but that’s not enough.
We need to believe that it *will* happen, and the reason we know it will happen is because we have accepted that it’s down to us, we’ve taken the responsibility for our own actions, and that we’re going to do something about it.
This takes us to the third word…
Implement.
If we’ve got the ‘hope’ right, by setting intention rather than wishes, and we’ve then got the ‘expect’ right by believing that we’ll do something about it, then we need to get on with that ‘doing!
Action is everything. Results only ever come about from action. Hoping and expecting are essentials in the self improvement arena, but they will remain as ideas in the head with no results and therefore no change, unless we take action.
We can start to implement our goals, the changes we want in life, because we know what they are in the first place, having turned ‘hope’ into defined goals. When we worked on the ‘expect’ part, we acknowledged that if we took the necessary actions and set out on the path, the results would come – not hoped for results, not wished for results, but expected results because we took on the responsibility to act.
If we don’t know what the next step is, we find out! The information will be out there, and more accessible with the internet than at any time we’ve known.
Once we start taking steps and realise we need to learn more, then we learn more! One action, followed by the next and the next, is progress.
It might be hard work, but we’ve accepted that. It might include setbacks, barriers, obstacles, but we’ve accepted that too!
I did say earlier that the combination of hope, expect, implement is something that we use all the time, and it’s true. If we look at the things we do on a daily basis, we can always see that flow of mental positioning followed by action. We can even see it when we do the things we don’t want to do!
The end results were defined in the real world, the expectation was there that they would happen, and the implementation was put into place.
We do it all the time, it’s just that most of us don’t realise, most of the time.
If that’s the case then, why don’t we apply that same flow to the things we *do* want! In my view, the main reason for this is a simple lack of awareness that it’s an option!
That’s why I put the message out there, because once we become aware, both that we use this flow all the time, and then that we can therefore direct it towards our dreams, our passions, the real authentic ‘us, then we are set to start down the road that many others are already on!
The support is out there for people making these choices, so why not look to your current circumstances – look to your hopes, are they intentions or just wishes?
Do you think it would be nice if it happened, or do you expect it?
Do you expect life to just make it happen, or are you going to set about implementing it yourself.
Hope, expect, implement.
Try it, it can change your life!
Ok, I’d love to hear what you think – do leave a comment!
‘Til Next Time,
Health & Happiness,
Gordon
P.S. If you want to get on with that ‘implementing’ then watch my free video series covering my 8 step goal achievement formula!
