So often when we project our minds into the future we do so with worry. Rather than forecast with faith, we forecast with fear. We call this dread. As a coach I would subscribe to the adage, “hope for the best, plan for the worst.” Hoping for the best demands that we have faith, a belief that things can be better in the future. My experience is that the deeper the belief and the more our actions align with that belief, the more likely our faith will be rewarded.
I love the story of Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. They had an idea for a collection of poems, stories, and tidbits of encouragement. They shopped their manuscript and were repeatedly rejected. How repeatedly? They were told “no” one hundred and forty times before someone took a chance on their anthology. Chicken Soup for the Soul, along with the sixty-four titles that have emerged from it, have since sold more than eighty million copies worldwide.
It’s important to forecast with faith, to have belief and hope in the future. It’s also good to understand that things aren’t always going to go your way, and to plan for that possibility. Have enough belief and hope, and not even one hundred and forty rejections will be too much resistance to keep you from realizing your dream.
When you forecast into the future, do you dream, or do you dread? What do you see when you imagine your deepest-held beliefs coming true? What productive action can take you one baby step closer to your vision? Dream and do. Good.
BUILT TO LEAD 