How to Stop Hoping and Start Doing It
Stop hoping. Hope provides fuel for possibilities but hoping for it doesn’t get you there. You have to start doing if you want to breathe life into hope. Otherwise, it withers into a wish and then fades into a whiff of smoke.
Hope happens to be a favorite topic of mine. The term #hopesmith became my tag a few years back, but I have always been a person prone to possibility thinking.
My dad told me once that I was a child of possibilities. I believed. I dreamed. I had an expectation that it could come true.
“I knew that if I put you in a room with a pile of manure I could come back later and you would be digging away. You’d expect to find a horse in the midst of all the mess,” my dad explained my hopeful tilt.
I married a realist . . . he doesn’t see the glass as half full or the glass as half empty, he wants to know who took his drink. Holding up my hope next to his scrutiny has led to more than a few “discussions” about hopes and wishes.
“Hoping won’t make it happen,” he has reminded me on more than one occasion.
It doesn’t slow me down. I still believe. I still dream. I still hope.
The other day someone made the declaration that it was time to stop hoping and to start getting it done. I almost took offense. Why look down on hope. Instead of getting defensive, I listened.
He went on to explain that without the action then hoping is meaningless.
THAT made sense. HOPE is an action word – it means that a seed is being planted (action). The seed will need to be nurtured (more action). The seed will grow (and more action).
Hoping is a linking verb – it links an ideas without actionable results. I can be hoping for a result, but until I take purposeful actions, the hoping will be for naught.
Turn Your Hoping into HOPE
- Dare to dream – hope is a seed planted by possibility thinking. Allow your imagination to soar, and it will give you wings as well.
- Know your rights – we are designed on purpose and for a purpose by the One who created it all. Knowing His promises and His directions give guidance to your hope.
- Be willing – be willing to do what needs to be done. Be willing to move and to go. Be willing to give up wants for something more.
- Go against the grain – we’ve never done it that way before is a strong grain. You will have to dare if you want to overcome.
Hope holds potential. Hope drives possibilities. Hope is about hearts open to pursuing the extraordinary. You have to make the choice to stop hoping and start doing, but never give up on HOPE!
Be blessed,
Hope Growing with Why Focus
Do you know your why? Place in Purpose will walk you through the four questions that will help you understand your why and your place in God’s design. Order your copy or learn more.
