Hope, Belief & Your People

I was listening to a podcast recently with Dr Ivan Joseph a sports psychologist and high-performance coach and he was asked by the interviewer what in his opinion were the key factors in achieving success – whether it be on the field or off. He stated that he believed there were two. The first is hope and a belief in yourself and the second is the people you surround yourself with. 

I really like this, and I’ve never really considered the power of them when put together. But if you think about it hope and belief propels you into action and the right people will inspire and encourage you to both take that action and keep going even when the going gets tough – a pretty powerful combination.

I’ve often heard the quote “hope is not a strategy”. It suggests that hope is somehow lazy and unstructured but perhaps that’s not entirely true. Hope in this new context suggests that it is in fact a strategy – a quality or an attitude that can make a difference in personal success. After all hope and belief are close cousins with hope providing anticipation and a sense of possibility and belief embodying an unwavering sense of ability. So, mix the energy of anticipation with the confidence of belief and you can suddenly see why Dr Jospeh came up with this combo as a marker for success.

The other quote I often hear is that you are the sum total of the 5 people you spend the most time with. It’s well known in the personal development space that you should seek the company of those further ahead along the road you want to travel. Not only do you speed up the learning curve, but you get visibility and proximity to that which you seek. This sounds simple enough until you look around you. Often what you’ll find is people who like you exactly as you are. They don’t want you to change or grow or they have their own fears which they project onto you – whether it be the fear of failure, the fear of becoming visible, the fear of ridicule, or even the fear of success. So, while this one sounds simple it’s actually quite hard. It often requires us to seek out new places for support and counsel.

So, think about it, you have a dream or an aspiration, but you don’t believe it is possible for you – you lack hope. Or you are surrounded by people who support and encourage you, but you don’t believe you have the resources or the capacity to make it happen. Or you believe it's possible, you have hope and you believe that you can do it, but the people who love you don’t share your vision and they try to talk you down.  I think Dr Joseph is onto something here.

The good news of course is that you can control any of these variables. You can build a mindset of hope and belief. You can take action that reinforces these and builds your competence and your confidence. You can seek out others and spend time with those who share your beliefs and aspirations. For me, I find many of these online. I hang out with some amazing people (think Oprah!) regularly through their podcasts and their online groups and communities. I subscribe to their emails I chat to their people and I ask them questions. I share my worries, celebrate my wins and tell my stories. I draw inspiration from them and their tribe. There’s no reason then not to pursue the life that you desire. Will it be easy – NO. Will it be without sacrifice – NO. Is it possible – ABSOLUTELY!

Email me and let me know if this resonates and what you do to protect your hope, your belief and your tribe.