The Process of Hope

Month of Hope Day 29 – I’ve been thinking about my “Process of Hope” lately and felt it was missing a couple key ingredients. (I have to laugh by the way, this is how I guess my analytical mind breaks down something that I’m not sure most would classify as analytical. 🤷🏼‍♂️) Optimism and Positivity play crucial roles in this process and I thought I’d add them in.

So this is my process of hope. I believe that anything that we are wanting to accomplish in life, we are somewhere in this process. Fortunately, unless you’ve been knocked hard enough in life to have your hope rattled or even taken away, you haven’t had to think about its importance, but for me, it is at the beginning of everything we do in life.

I thought today I’d jump through how I see each step. Instead of my process though, I’d thought I’d use careers paths as an example.

Hope – While many jump right through this phase, sadly some are in the position of just hoping for a job, and can’t get themselves to even dream about anything specific, just hoping for a job.

Dreams – whether dreaming of a new job in the field you want to be in or just a specific job you are trying to move to, many people allow themselves to get to this phase and just stop. Whether it’s the risk associated or belief they could actually accomplish it, they will most likely remain in this phase.

“Optimism” – While not officially a part of the process, I believe optimism is that energy that allows you to make the move from dreams to goals. It’s the ability and willingness to let yourself see that vision actually becoming a reality.

Goals – This is where things get specific. What career do you want? What is that job/position/role you want? It’s not only those specifics though, but it’s also setting up the Process. You can’t move to the next step until you set up how you are going to achieve those set goals. Once you know the result goals and then set the process goals, you take that next step.

Process – This is that piece where you are working the process. That phase where you move as quickly or as slowly as the focus and effort you put into it. You have already set up how you were going to earn that position, now is where you work for it. You are committed to reaching that Goal and are working the process in order to do it. (Yes, if you have said all the right things, but then get to this phase and aren’t really working the process needed to move forward you will be stuck here, but we’ll focus more to the positive. Which is an excellent segue into the next piece. 😉

“Positivity” – Again, not an official piece, but adds so much value. I put it in between Process and Result, as I think it is so important in both. I think too often people get lost in “positive” being “cheerleader” type approach. Positivity is your ability to see the next step forward. Whether in the middle of working your process and you get frustrated or the result comes and you are disappointed, positivity isn’t seeing those as great things in themselves, but rather seeing that those things too make you stronger and better. Positivity is accepting the result as just that, and knowing there is more you can do next time.

Result – This is an actual result or any time you decide to take a step back from working that process and evaluate where you are now. At this point you have a decision to make as to where to reinsert yourself in the process. Technically, I’d say you restart, but unless you saw or are given a result that knocks you back to Hope for whatever reason, you can really assume that all to be there. Some examples here:

Result isn’t there but still have same hopes, dreams, and goals, you reinsert yourself into the Process phase and get back to work.

Result is or isn’t there but now you have questions if this is really something want anymore. You may reinsert yourself in the Dreams phase and start looking at what that next step may be for you.

Result comes in and crushes you. Maybe you are downsized, with a specialty in a downsizing industry, and that type of thing could knock someone all the way back to just finding the Hope to move on.

This all isn’t to say it’s an easy process, but it helps me to see I can break it down into steps. It also helps me to know that I will never ever lose Hope again, so no matter what life throws at me, I will have a foundation on which I will stand and continue to live my life.

Thanks for following along as I went through my examples on the process. Yes, for me I can clearly see how I took these steps in my journey with cancer, but I think it’s more than just those situations. This is the Process of Hope that we are all following everyday, and it’s what allows us to be both amazingly caring and also resilient human beings.