How many mountains what’s your T-shirt say?

Peace and Joy —THE VIEW  FROM THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN…OH NO!

There is this formula for success.  We all learn it.  Set a goal.  Break it down into the actions  it will take  to reach that goal.  Get to work.  Plan the work and work the plan.  Well guess what?  That works, except when you get to the top of the  mountain.  I’ll come back  to the top of the mountain in a minute.

Imagine  you were one of the first pioneers traveling  west.  Now let’s remember that  until 1855 Iowa City,  was the end of the railroad going west…so from there to  Hollywood was  a bit of a stroll.  Oh  so let’s say  our  decided to take what became  known as the Mormon  Trail out west.   (You’re about  to find out I don’t know  exactly  what that trail  was)Anyway you decided to go west and  after walking through  Nebraska  where millions of pioneers disappeared not due to hard winters etc… but  because they were  bored to death just like people who take I-80 now.  So you start to see off in the distance some huge mountain, that became mountains and then row after row of mountains.  Well people settled  all along the way usually on the  east side of the mountain.  Why? because here was a flat spot and  their legs were freaking tired.  Then what about the  people who just happened upon the Grand Canyon?  I don’t know  what curse words  were in vogue  back then…. but I’m  pretty sure most of them  were employed the first time  the white man set  their eyes upon  that little crack in the  ground. 

Anyway, let’s go back to the top of the mountain.  You set  your goal or goals and achieved these things you  have wanted to achieve and endured some sacrifices and  did a lot of hard  work and most of us drank the Kool-Aid.  Rethought  we would be happy “when” we got to the top of the mountain.  After all we chose the mountain and did the climbing.  then, we looked around and realized that we were not  really  any different  inside than we had been the day before… and worse from the top  of that mountain (much like those pioneers we could see many other mountains from the top of this one and  the questions started to build. 

Did I pick the right mountain?

Will I ever  be happy?

What’s  the point of climbing any mountains?

Well if all this sounds very familiar perhaps you’ve read “The Second Mountain: A search for  a moral life.”  It was  written by David (I can’t  remember his last  name but it starts with a B) .  Now why  did I steal his idea?  Well it’s a good  idea so far.  Unfortunately, it seems to  suggest that once you climb your mountain  you should climb the mountain that will serve  humanity.  Well there’s  nothing wrong with service to your fellow  man at all.  Yet wouldn’t  there be a third mountain maybe to help others  help others  who would help  others and maybe  a grand canyon or two along the way?  

I don’t  intend to sound  like a defeatist  here.  I guess  what occurs to me is a different question.  

Will climbing the second  mountain  make you happy?  If so why not choose that  as  your first mountain?  Going beyond that why  don’t we all climb together and pick some mountains  together and why do we think we have to climb?  Maybe we should tunnel under a  few and maybe we should  sit at the base of some and enjoy each other’s company?   

From the top any mountain  the only direction  possible is down.  

Now  don’t get wrong at all I love  mountains.  They rise up from  friction and forces  they cannot control and say(in a language only mountains really know) “let me rise up from here and create  something of beauty to be eenjoyed for centuries  and centuries.”  

They also say let the sunlight  change my colors  from sun up to sundown and from spring to winter.  

They say let people be happy  not because they can conquer  me, but because I will be  here with them.  

So now here’s where I get to the peace and joy  part.  Should  a person  attempt to become  a spirit that can give  their best gifts?  Yes, I believe so.  Do you sometimes need to set goals to develop or more  correctly discover  these gifts?  Well I think some of the time that is probably  the case.  On the other hand sometimes I think like the mountain.  Maybe  my gift is  being there with  others on their journey whether they decide to climb or not.  Sometimes I see people climbing and want to  yell…go ahead…but  when you get to the top you will just see  five more  mountains and  that third  one…well that’s what  we mountains call a volcano and well she’s ready to blow.  

Maybe  when it’s all said  and done I have three  pieces of knowledge.

1. Never start  up a mountain that is only for you—they don’t really exist and you stand to fool yourself.
2. Next, some mountains are only meant for being in wonder about and helping  us learn  patience and endurance not “progress and conquering.”
3. Nebraska  can’t help if it is flat.

Look if you are from Nebraska  I am from Iowa  so we  have  a lot of boring there  too… boring what?  Well  beans and corn and hogs.  Yes we have more  pigs than people  and sometimes  it’s hard to tell the difference (yes I’ve heard the joke.).

Your mountain is inside.  Let others  help you  explore it and climb if you want or build a little  gift shop  at the base of your inner  mountain and invite  the public in where your sell only one t-shirt which  reads:

I came to this mountain, I saw  this  mountain and shared  in its beauty and all I got was  this t-shirt (and a little peace and joy). 

The anxiety ridden battle between illusion and control

The Illusion of Control and the Control of Illusion (a very strange balancing act we do in seeking PEACE & JOY)

The ring announcer steps to the microphone and addresses the crowd…. they arena is buzzing with excitement.  The words come  tumbling out.  “In this corner we have  hope, curiosity, promise, talentt, and a willingness  to take some risks.  In the opposite  corner we  have discomfort  with uncertainty, fear of losing public  opinion , a need to be understood, and questions about  how your known world will respond to significant change.   The referee might as  well skip any  explanation  of how this needs to be a fair fight and with the sound of the bell… the “winner take all battle to the finish is on.  

Sometimes seeking peace and joy seems  like this type of battle not a gentle  growing in serenity  and happiness.  Sometimes it seems like  a brawl within where intellect and emotions  are separated at times and at times are  throwing  brutal jabs and hooks within your soul.  

Why?  Well after some meditation, prayer, and thought.   With  a whole lot of  wondering  how I got here and where is it  that I am  pondering, the best I can do is this tentative  conclusion (which is a fancy way of saying here’s my guess my friends).  

There are times in life where the bus stops and lets you off at the intersection of  Control Street and Illusion Avenue.  You  aren’t quite sure if you  have to  adjust your  control over some illusions or whether  you have forgotten that sometimes you operate  with a degree of illusions of control.  

What  in the world  dow this mean?  Well as best as I can explain (because I’m somewhat close to that intersection right now)  is this.  Controlling illusions is about thoughts and feelings that  everyone knows and sees all your faults and mistakes and can’t possibly understand the way you see the world and wouldn’t forgive  you if “they really knew the mistakes you make.”  So you sit wondering how or if you could explain all this to those you love and trust and thus gain a little more  control of your illusions.

Or on the other hand you look at  all that has happened and all that could  happen and really start to doubt that  there is a true cause and effect relationship  between  thoughts and actions, actions and results,  results and change, and adding that  all up choices and responsibilities.  Oh and add in the public and private  aspects of  all of that too just for  a little extra complexity.   For those  things fall into the bucket of  what might be called an illusion of control.  

Having said all this—I have come to realize many people don’t let their  minds and should even ask the types of questions  that bring  many  of us to this point because doing so is  staring into the very chasm of  being  a spiritual  being in a human world.  From time to time  I envy those who avoid coming fact to face with this, but believe  many of us would be  richer people they stepped a bit closer to some of these  things.  Life is never quite the same once  you dip your tows into this pool and maybe  you are never quite immune  to  the haunting nature of its complexity after that.  

So what’s a person to do?  If you are seeking  peace and joy it is  not all that close to  that intersection—or is it?  You see maybe  if you can be courages and curious  and believe  enough  in those  around  you or that you  will find others on the other side of the intersection, then seeking  peace and joy  where you are and with what  you have becomes a little  clearer (not easier) but clearer.  Maybe  you’ve  finally learned what peace and joy mean for you and maybe you will learn  how to engage in the journey  in a new way.  For me there will always be recycling where I don’t know why  things happened or where my next step should be.  The thing I have learned is to be  glad to be able to regroup  and take a next step no matter how doubtful I might be.  I have learned to think about the  people  I know  who have stared  into the chasm and how rich their souls  are.  I have learned that I can stop a minute and  get  stalled, however I can’t stop where I am because  then I have not finished my services to the universe.  Knowing that, peace and joy  in the seeking  is possible and  that is what I have learned.  

Okay, I am going to wrap this up because for some of you who  have read this far and don’t really grasp  what I am saying, there is no amount of further  writing that will  get you there right now and I apologize for  this rant.  For those of you  who identify with most of this, always know that you have  an partner and friend  ringside.  

Peace and Joy are worth the effort because of lessons  we learn on the journey…and sometimes  they fall freely  from the sky like so many warm raindrops and sometimes they come  in the form of a wicked  left  hook to the jaw.  Either way  you can get  from here to there.  You may have to climb a couple  mountains…. and that will be what I talk about next time… For now there’s the bell….time to start round  22,001.  

A new season of peace and joy eight

A NEWSEASON FOR PEACE AND JOY 8

Some seasons last forever #Chicago Cubs 2016.  Well they last forever in the minds of some anyway.  However, in promoting the idea of  seeking peace and joy it seems to promote the idea of ggrowth or at least change.  This blog and its various posts have been viewed over 3000 times  in about 5 months and that humbles me a bit.  I barely  want to hear my own  thoughts some days and yet some of you  have read them whenever the  spirit has struck me to  put something out there as an offer.  

Now I could continue this highly  unedited flow of discourse for  a long time because  quite frankly it helps me process life.  Yet, I feel the need to do some reflection over what  I have offered and the need to revise and issue some of it.  I also imagine the spelling and structure  of some of these  ramblings  have been trying at times.  

So getting to the point—starting this week I will post  three times (maybe four) on here.  I will also be posting a YouTube  video at least once a week and am going to  do my best within  the month to get a podcast  rolling.  I think at first the podcast will be  once or twice a week pulling from former posts here and the posts that  follow.  

Okay that is enough  formality.  Here is what I really plan to do.  I will ramble my wisdom out  in about the same manner as ever except  I will not use the …  or — so much when expressing my internal processing of thoughts.  I will put those things  in (these things) instead.  That should make some of this easier to follow (like you are ver  easy to follow) and  yes I’ll still throw  in some poetry (fancy word for the little rhymes you offer) and a song or two.  

Having said all this I want to start the new season with a  couple of verses peace and joy and a new season.

Some days in life I feel quite strange

Are there moments I would change?

I’d likely have less worldly debts

But would  I have so few regrets?

Lately things have whirled and turned

Hence  valued lessons I have  learned

and these inspirations I’ll employ

To keep right  on seeking  Peace and Joy

Thanks everyone for being  part of this journey and let’s see what  the road ahead  has to offer.   

Hope requires experimentation

E IS FOR EXPERIMENTATION

Hope by it’s very  nature implies one of two things.  The desire to keep something  tht might change the same--or changing something  that is  into something that  isw yet tobe.  If one hopes  to maintain something that most likely means there are forces  in play that are going to change things.  In short doing what you are doing now willl not continue to work.  If you want change the same is aabsolutely  also true.  So let’s begin with the assumption that was made  a coule posts ago.  In order to to have serious  hope work will be need to take action.  This leaves the question ….

WHAT ACTION SHOULD BE TAKEN?

Here is where the idea of experiementation  comes in. 

Yes I mean just like science would suggest.  Try something that you  believe will work --a hypothesis if you will--pay attention to what changes and what  does not.  Pay attentionto the circumstances, pay ttention to what happened  and what did not.  Mostly look at  what went right and ask if  that would hppen again if the same actions were taken----but  by no means ignore what went wrong.  Here is where the lessons  are!   Try something different the next time and see if that works better but  not as if you were  defeated by your first  attempt.  Do this as if you were educated by your first attempt.  There is a difference between  results of an experiment and findings or conclusions.  All to often we  take the data and  leave our hopes shattered on the ground when the solutions or clues  to them are scattered right there too.  Wo,  next  time (remember last time I talked about persistence) tweak  something or shake it radically...but hold some things --behviors solid so you will eventually have a bseline  of growing movements toward successful  movement toward  your hooped  outcome.  Don’t weaste  your breath or precious energy thinking in terms of  failures and mistakes--think in terms of  cluses  and lessons for future successes.  

It is only natural to want to start  out experiements  not wanting  with failure--so first find some models of situations that you thiunk  are working  out okay and  build your experiment on these components….but  don not make the mistake  of  looking at the  successful factors  in those models and assume you have those covered so you don’t  need to include them in your  next experiment.  That would be  like taking  your recipe  book out and seeing  a cake  reading the the ingrediants you use just like the prize  winning  devils  food cake and  not using the  common ingrediants  to bke your  next cake and then tasting what you have then baked.  

You have to put  it all together  and then see what you have.  If  it’s closer to what  you want then that is good...pick aother variable  and get to work  on hat.  Eventually you  will build the  solution and maybe if  you do this  optiistically  you will find soe happy accidents.  You may find that the results go far  beyond your original hope because  you have created sodething far more apecial than you could have done given the ingrediants  you were afraid to change  at one point.  You ay  also find that failure  (as  others may define it) is a quick way of  clearing the path for hope  

The key to this whole experiementation thing is to reserve  judgement.  What no I dont mean don’t  find things right or wrong… I mean sometimes the things you find wrong are as importatnt  as the things you find right and thus are not to be feared.  Analyzing  allows you to have an active  rorole in your hope instead of being relegated to the bleachers and being a bystander as cicurmstances randomly determine your opportunities.  That is  not someting that allows you to implement  hard  work,display optimism, gainthe  the benefits of persistaence or be a front row observer of the results  of actions you chose to take...and that brings me full  circle.

Hope is  a choice but it is not a simple one.  You are likely to be  more aligned with  your purpose if you take an active  role and this  definition of hope allows  you to do this.  I cn hope mony falls out  of the sky..but can I guarantee a Us trreasury  plane will be flying overhead and  without knoweing hoe the wind  will impacgt the  drop direction of paper and  knoweing howe many flights might have to happen before  one of these planes  develops a crack in its cargo hold at the exact moment in time I am wolking underneath...How realistic  is my hope and what can I do (legally) to increase  my hope… Or  I can experiment with  different types of work and different tyepes of learing needed to do this wokk and see if the outcoe is at least as  positive as  sitting in my lawn chair  looking for  US treasury shipments . 

I guess  the place I want to end up on this is  with the hope that you  will hav the courage to adopt  a stronger definition of hope and that you jight allow me to help be part of  your optimistic army and experimentation  team if needed.  Being  alone and hopeful is a difficut  thing.  Reach out--explain hoe in the way this blog  sets it out  and you may find more  help to make your hoopes a reality…. And that is my hope for  you.  ---expecially if your hopes include  seeking  peace and joy. 

Optimism leads to success not the other way around and

OPTIMISM IS PART OF THE JOURNEY NOT THE DESTINATION

In the redefinition  of HOPE the O stands for Optimism.  

A lot of “motivational folks will tell you  to set little goals and  eventually  you’ll meet your big goals.  We often interpret that  as success leads  to success…. if that were true the equation  would  look like this

Hope  follows  success—Well… that’s  not how it  works in  real life  or in neuroscience.  

The formula  is the opposite.  Hopeful people are more successful and optimism is a big part of  that hope or  happiness that contributes to success.  In “positive psychology” study  after study after study after study (did I mention there is research  here?) research has shown that more hopeful, happy people reach their goals than  having reaching a goal  make  you happy.

So the setting little goals is  not meant to  actually  help you reach the big so much as it is a optimism  booster.  

Why else is it  productive to optimistic?   There are two simple reasons.  Sometimes  in order  to make a hope into a reality you are going to need  help from others who believe in  your efforts.  You can’t be very  convincing (or fun to be around for that matter)  if  you are constantly  saying “I doubt” or This probably won’t”…. Often when you  make such  statements as  an important  member  of a team seeking something you subtly encourage  the same behaviors  from others  and then not succeeding  seems to be somewhat of an expectation.  Also  the more people who have that attitude  on your team  the more positive  energy is drained away.  The pessimists  seem to suck  the life out of  hope and thus I often refer to these as “vampire” types.  They are the Yes that could work but….chorus in the room.  They may eventually agree  to go along in public but in private groups they may openly air doubts about success and generally  drain much needed morale  from others.  

It is hard to have peace and joy when some are  betting on  failure and misery.  

So  to summarize…. research  shows that  optimism leads to success —not really the other way around.  Optimism  adds energy and it is important to  spot those who will  be the vampires.    I am not suggesting  that optimism  has to trump  realism… like  I wouldn’t  expect the captain  of the Titanic to  come over the loud speaker and  announce “FREE ICE FOR EVERYONE!!!”   I would  however suggest in thinking  through a situation where  you would like to be hopeful that “hey I know a lot  of people pullling for us here…”  I know these people have a lot of skills and  know how to do hard  work  and they won’t  give  up no matter how many different things  they have to  try.”   

Well speaking  of not giving up… The  next  post is about Persistence 

Seeking Peace and Joy  is all about  the journey and the joy in the adventure of  seeking it.  So  thanks for reading this and  please persist long enough to read the next entry….

I am optimistic that you will.

A new definition hope begins with hard work

HOPE—

H is for HARD WORK

HOPE IS — one of the strongest  forces on the planet and in the universe.  However, as I explained in  the post  just before this…. there is a lot packed into this thing we call hope.  

Hard Work

Optimisim

Persistence &

Experimentation

Well this  entry  is about the first of  these….. hard work.

To begin with….why  Hard Work I’m  not going to assume what is hard for one person is hard for another…. physical…cognitive….emotional etc…  however in order  for  us to hope I am assuming  someone is wanting something either to change or  not to change .  

Hard work means that an extra effort will be needed to  build momentum or maintain inertia.   

This means that  the status quo in terms of effort is not enough.  It means that some actions are going to  be needed.  You can hope to have cake alol day  long…but if you don’t  make one, buy one, go to a party where they are  having it… the hope  to have it  is a waste of your personal energy.  

So most  people  would agree that something has to be done  to make hopes come true…but why  “hard”  work?  Mostly because you have already done all the easy work and nothing  has filled the void that  you are hoping  to fill…. so some “harder” work is  probably  in order.  ISince I don’t  know what you are hoping for….I can choose  one of many paths here to draw examples from…. of course I’ll  take the road less traveled.  

I’ll give two examples of  hope and hard work.  I am a confirmed  Learn-aholic.  I mean when there’s something to learn about and I’m interested in it I  get almost addicted to learning about it and then I move to something else  and treat it the same way.  However in some of the things I have  hoped for in the past……I forgot about the learning part and focused  more on the wanting  part I wanted something  badly enough but didn’t do the learning  part and  I also didn’t do the hardest thing of all (in my opinion) —I didn’t figure out if this thing I was hoping for was  something I wanted…or something I needed.  Asking  yourself that question  is hard…and sometimes the  hardest part is the  knowing  the answer and knowing that your  hope  is fleeting because  you are the  one  who wants something and doesn’t need it and others around  you don’t  want or need it either.  

Okay  back to the other  hard  thing about hard work… is that you are going to have to cover  new ground.   I will talk about  that in further  posts… but if going  new places to determine different  options isn’t  your cup of tea then  any work  you do to make your  hope come true is going to be  just a little (I”M kidding—a hell of a  lot)  more difficult.  

So step one in  making hopes  into reality is hard work.  

Now  I’ll give you  another example and see how this hits you.

Imagine  you are in a foreign land and you  are under a dictatorship  or a tzar, or king or some sort of ruler.   You  would rather  have  more choices and freedom because the king pretty much dictates what happens with the resources and who produces  what and gets to live where they get to live.  Suppose  you decide that  wont  work for you and decide well I’m going to get a bunch of us  together and change  this….  and suppose due to a whole bunch of  pride, hard work, and other local  forces  you overthrow the  king.  Now that’s great right—-???except  now there are all the questions the king used to  answer.  What do we  do with these resources?  How and where do  we build roads and bridges?>  How many of our children are going to get to o school?  

Well answering  these questions is hard work and  then one more question  happens—-who is going to pay for all the things?  

Well a couple hundred  years ago a bunch of us did that right  here  in the United States and we—state by state - and then federally devised a system of taxes to pay for our wishes or  our hopes.  Now we still have some problems with  deciding  if these are things we want or need sometimes and  have some pretty interesting  discussions about who has the  best/or right opinions on things…. but  being able to have taxes instead of  battling decisions out with weapons  is  a strangely hopeful thing.  Is it easy to govern  ourselves this way….hell no …but is it a hopeful way…it can be…as long as we  remember it does now and will always  require hard work.

Tomorrow we  wil take a look at optimism… 

For today…get to work and keep your  hopes alive.  

A new way to think about hope peace and joy

PEACE & JOY AND YOUR POWER OFHOPE

So what  most people  think  of “hope”  only a slice of what it really  is and really takes.  So you hear  people say -‘at first we were or I was  hopeful….but now I’m not so much so.”    Or  you hear  some say there is little or no hope.  Well under the wimpy  definition of hope that  most  people  employ… they  are probably  correct.  today I am going  to ask  you to give hope a new meaning.

Instead of thinking of  hope as a monolithic  concept think of it as a complex  powerful force within you that  you have  control  over.  I

So  to begin with  when I ask  you to hope along with me… I will offer you this  new definition in terms of  an acronym .  

H—is for  Hard Work

O is for  Optimism 

P is for Persistent  and 

E is for Experimenting

If  you want to have hope—then expect if you want it to pay  off you are going to work hard  at pushing life in the direction you hope to go.   You have  to want something  badly enough to behave  like you want it.  Hope  is  not and cannot  be a mystery to those around  you.   Let  your  network  know  this is what  you want the universe  to deliver (universe meaning  the holy spirit —your friends—the force—whatever you determine ifs the most  relevant  in your situation)   Simply  work hard  enough and let  people  know what direction  you want to go.

Second  being optimistic is  critical for  several reasons.  Most important  if your  hope is going to come true you may  have to be a leader  of a small tribe who is pulling for you.    If you say things like “I doubt  this can  happen but I hope we can  do it.”  It will be  difficult to recruit  the army  you may need.  Also if you don’t  require optimism you will often fall prey  to “energy vampires.”  These are the people who  well to put it  in its simplest  form… Aaare there people who exhaust  you just by being around?  They are  vampires.  Are there people  who  more or less demand an explanation for everything you propose?  They are vampires.  You might not  immediately  identify  these folks as  naysayers because  they sometimes come along with the cause and are “helpful…but they do little to boost  the control of your hope.

Persistence …. There is a real misconception that hope is momentary and linear  concept that doesn’t require you  to fall down and then get  up  again—hope springs eternal  because that’s  what it takes sometimes.  To getwhatyou hope for you sometimes have to take a run or two at the wall or  chip away the  canyon by chipping away at it or  running the water over it for a while…sometimes 

E is for Experiments… Well part of that persistence thing is being willing to  try several things —some of which  will not work.  However if you look at  life as an experiment then “failures become “findings” and clues to further research.   You are  giving  things not only a second try…but a smarter or wiser try.  The key component  to this aspect of hopeis that a scientist  or researcher rarely views themselves as failing  as long as  they are learning.   In this  way a mistake may not be the end of hope but something  that  makes your ultimate  goal or plan more  likely.  

Well  I’m inviting you to think of hope  this way in the context of peace and joy—for reasons  that may be very obvious  by  now…however.. just in case I will  clarify.

Developing  apeace is not an accident and joy often comes  to those  who maintain hope.  

More on the next few days about  hope…for now just consider  the new meaning  Ioffered  here.

and have a great  Monday (or whatever day it is when you  are reading this.  

Peace  & Joy 

Peace joy and your power of hope

Well  I’m inviting you to think of hope  this way in the context of peace and joy—for reasons  that may be very obvious  by  now…however.. just in case I will  clarify.

Developing  apeace is not an accident and joy often comes  to those  who maintain hope.  

Moron the next few days about  hope…for now just consider  the new meaning  Ioffered  here.

and have a great  Monday (or whatever day it is when you  are reading this.  

Peace  & Joy PEACE & JOY AND YOUR POWER OFHOPE

So what  most people  think  of “hope”  only a slice of what it really  is and really takes.  So you hear  people say -‘at first we were or I was  hopeful….but now I’m not so much so.”    Or  you hear  some say there is little or no hope.  Well under the wimpy  definition of hope that  most  people  employ… they  are probably  correct.  today I am going  to ask  you to give hope a new meaning.

Instead of thinking of  hope as a monolithic  concept think of it as a complex  powerful force within you that  you have  control  over.  I

So  to begin with  when I ask  you to hope along with me… I will offer you this  new definition in terms of  an acronym .  

H—is for  Hard Work

O is for  Optimism 

P is for Persistent  and 

E is for Experimenting

If  you want to have hope—then expect if you want it to pay  off you are going to work hard  at pushing life in the direction you hope to go.   You have  to want something  badly enough to behave  like you want it.  Hope  is  not and cannot  be a mystery to those around  you.   Let  your  network  know  this is what  you want the universe  to deliver (universe meaning  the holy spirit —your friends—the force—whatever you determine ifs the most  relevant  in your situation)   Simply  work hard  enough and let  people  know what direction  you want to go.

Second  being optimistic is  critical for  several reasons.  Most important  if your  hope is going to come true you may  have to be a leader  of a small tribe who is pulling for you.    If you say things like “I doubt  this can  happen but I hope we can  do it.”  It will be  difficult to recruit  the army  you may need.  Also if you don’t  require optimism you will often fall prey  to “energy vampires.”  These are the people who  well to put it  in its simplest  form… Aaare there people who exhaust  you just by being around?  They are  vampires.  Are there people  who  more or less demand an explanation for everything you propose?  They are vampires.  You might not  immediately  identify  these folks as  naysayers because  they sometimes come along with the cause and are “helpful…but they do little to boost  the control of your hope.

Persistence …. There is a real misconception that hope is momentary and linear  concept that doesn’t require you  to fall down and then get  up  again—hope springs eternal  because that’s  what it takes sometimes.  To getwhatyou hope for you sometimes have to take a run or two at the wall or  chip away the  canyon by chipping away at it or  running the water over it for a while…sometimes 

E is for Experiments… Well part of that persistence thing is being willing to  try several things —some of which  will not work.  However if you look at  life as an experiment then “failures become “findings” and clues to further research.   You are  giving  things not only a second try…but a smarter or wiser try.  The key component  to this aspect of hopeis that a scientist  or researcher rarely views themselves as failing  as long as  they are learning.   In this  way a mistake may not be the end of hope but something  that  makes your ultimate  goal or plan more  likely.