Hope and Change

I hope you aren't tired of political commercials yet. It's only August and before the first Tuesday in November it's going to get a lot worse! Regardless of your political affiliation, hope always sounds good and so does change, when it is a change for the better. However, I disagree with the president. I don't think hope and change starts at the top. I think it starts from within each and every one of us.

You cannot legislate hope and change just as you cannot legislate feelings or thoughts. Those things are firmly in our personal realm ... and firmly within our control.

Hope is an attitude and it is up to us to decide what kind of attitude we want to cultivate. Then, we must do the work to develop that attitude and it isn't easy. It requires tenacity and dedication. Our thoughts are often so close to us that they become second nature. It is hard to notice something so close to us, not to mention alter it.

No one can create hope for you. You have to do it on your own and for yourself.

Change is a little bit dicier. Most of us dread it. Business schools devote entire classes to managing it. Motivational speakers make a living telling people how to handle it. A lot of time we assume change is going to be bad. If nothing else, change promises to be different and, as creatures of comfort, we don't like different!

Even when it is good (getting a promotion, moving to a better house) or when the outcome will be great (losing weight, saving money), change is hard. Someone making us change makes change impossible. No one can force us to do it. Real and lasting change comes from within, once we find the reasons why we truly want to change. These are the reasons that give us the drive and the focus to overcome our inertia and really do something different.

So regardless of what happens in four months, we can have the hope and change we desire, if we decide that we want it.