Light Taking the Long Hard Look

“If you're not hopeful and optimistic, then you just give up. You have to take the long hard look and just believe that if you're consistent, you will succeed.”
- John Lewis

Being hopeful and optimistic can sometimes come across as being naive and not having the gravitas to meet a certain challenge. Hope and optimism when critical and sustainable can lead to solutions toward positive change.

If we aren’t hopeful and optimistic then we become hopeless and give up. The reality is we may slip into hopelessness and have a hard time seeing the light in a situation or circumstance.

The above quote by John Lewis continues to come up for me these days especially this line...

” You have to take the long hard look and just believe that if you’re consistent, you will succeed.”

Being hopeful and optimistic with an open heart and mind assists in being consistent in the chaos and the uncomfortable. The long hard look takes patience, persistence, perspective, passion, process and purpose.

The spark we need to be hopeful and optimistic is probably different for each of us as we navigate the unexpected. We can ask ourselves:

What sparks hope and optimism for me?

What do I need to take a long hard look at?

What strategies do I need to use to be consistent day to day?

A light taking the hard long look and believing in oneself stays true through:

• Patience - giving oneself grace to navigate the chaos and the uncomfortable
• Persistence - staying the course even on the days, weeks or months that feel like setbacks
• Perspective - knowing a setback leads to a comeback, self-talk can build us up or tear us down
• Passion - exuding it - whatever it is for you - do it!
• Process - see patience again, process takes time - an evolution of change that organically exposes itself over time
• Purpose - see passion again, do it in deliberate fashion

May we share our light and love through hope and optimism even when we are navigating chaos. May we gain clarity and create solutions that lead to positive change.