“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
President elect Franklin D. Roosevelt said that 76 years and two months ago.
He was eloquent in his attempt to deliver on the promise that the American people could pull out of the depths of the economic troubles that they then faced.
It’s weird.
I read the text of that speech and I felt like any minute now I could be hearing it being said for real by President Obama as it poured out of the clock radio beside my bed while I sipped this morning’s coffee.
It’s that relevant.
When things are bad and we feel powerless to change them (like the workers at Chrysler Corporation must do) what we all want is to have more hope. We all want someone to stand up and tell us how to get that hope.
But, like Seth Godin said in his blog post today, “I don’t know what to do. You do.”
Lots of us want someone to tell us what to do. That’s why we elect politicians isn’t it? But like Seth says, it’s not the pat answers – the ones that those business gurus who try lead us provide – but the kinds of questions they ask that we should listen to.
I agree.
Questions are very powerful because they cause us to come up with our own solutions for things that are tailored to our own unique situation. As the world’s first “immunity coach” the only advice I give people is to not continually pursue success but rather learn to deny the sting of failure (after all there’s so much more of it) by strengthening your immunity to it and therefore your mindset.
The process I use forces them to ask themselves questions – a lot of
questions – by applying the formula of H.O.P.E..
It’s an acronym that stands for:
History
Opens
Perception
Expands
What I mean by that is this: If you were to carefully examine your past success history you’d find that there are certain nuggets of gold buried in those times when you had no choice but to overcome difficulties.
These are your personal stories. The highlights of your life that will Open to you greater Perception of the success ‘juice’ that powers the HERO within you.
Once you find that hidden HERO it Expands into all areas of your life and your future can then unfold without so much fear because then…
you’ll be the person you hoped for.
More power to you my friends,
David.