Millions of people face an uncertain future. We’re taught to go to school, develop skills, work hard, be loyal and treat others as we want to be treated. That all looks good on paper but unexpected events and circumstances pop up seemingly out of no where, and life gets out of control.
How many of you are unemployed, sick, depressed, stressed out about your job or otherwise feel like life is spinning out of control? No matter what you do, promised results allude so you read, go back to school, follow your passion and get in touch with your inner calling – just to get slapped back into the reality of bills, competition and ridicule.
I’ve come to the conclusion we can’t use external behavior to control destiny. Being who you are and doing what you love is great action but without the inner sense of faith, nothing works. Sometimes people put on a positive mental attitude persona and jump off a mountain with no parachute, crashing and burning in the valley below. That happens when you substitute faith with hope.
Many people were hypnotized to “hope” for a better future in the 2008 US presidential election. “Yes We Can!” but didn’t. Give whatever excuse you want for a recovery on Wall Street, immunity for financial criminals that imploded the global economy and the wealth gap widening, sucking the middle class into an endless nightmare. Hoping for a better future puts you and me in a dependent position – victim consciousness all day long.
A couple of years ago I had an epiphany about hope. Hope comes from a sense of lack – not having whatever you desire. “I hope I get this job”, “I hope I win the lottery”, “I hope I lose some weight”, “I hope that deal closes” … That’s not what you want. It’s just that we’ve been programmed to believe joy and abundance come from all these external circumstances.
Before I met my husband, I was lonely. For many years, I hoped to meet my ideal life mate. Yeah, I didn’t want just a “husband”. I wanted the ideal relationship for me. Finally, after I came to an emotional place of being in joy single, boom – he showed up, hidden in a package I didn’t recognize and more perfect than I could have imagined.
As soon as I gave up hope for an external condition to bring me joy, I was in joy and the external condition manifested without effort.
Hope is the flip side of the fear coin, taking away personal power. We ride the roller coaster of emotion with every news article, congressional action or corporate activity instead of finding that inner power to access a feeling of joy and abundance regardless of what’s going on in apparent reality.
The only way to control destiny is to control your thoughts and feelings NOW. No, you can’t always get everything that you think you want, but engaging faith you attract something so much better.