"If we continue to pursue hope, then we had best become a producer of it, rather than a consumer of it."

Peter Block

As a business coach, I've seen many people who live their life exclusively in the domain of hope.  "If I have a great product, people will buy it. If I'm a great coach, people will hire me.  If I treat people the way I want to be treated, they will refer me."

Nothing could be further from the truth. 

Hope is the dark side of positive thinking. 

Every day, it suffocates people's possibilities by perpetuating the expectation that someone else or something else is going to come along and rescue us from ourselves, from our problems, from our situations.  We expect things to change, we just don't want to do the changing.   

Hold on!  I know some of you are reading this thinking, "But, Kim, you've GOT to have hope!  What's life without hope?"

And I agree.  Life without hope is an empty void.  But hope is only part of the equation.  Hope in and of itself is really a way to put responsibility on something or someone outside ourselves.  When we only hope for things to get better, we hold the present hostage.  But hope MARRIED with inspired action is the magic combination.  The tipping point here is when hope keeps you from doing the thing you can do.

I've got a question for you:

What are you hoping for that is keeping you from doing the thing that you can do right here, right now, today?