Kev Kennedy's Blog

Hope is not a strategy

I was at a conference recently and heard the following three point mantra repeated in several of the seminars. Sometimes when you hear something several times its power diminishes, but these have stuck with me. They were:

‘Some’ is not a number.
‘Soon’ is not a time.
‘Hope’ is not a strategy.

That last one in particular has struck me. Hope is not a strategy. It’s got me thinking about how I arrange my life and plan for the future. I’m a bit of a day-dreamer, full of the plans of what I could do 'one day'. For example…

I hope to be a published novelist one day.
I hope to earn a decent living doing things I really enjoy.
I hope to travel the world.
I hope to own a better car than I do now.
I hope to change things for the better in my local community.
I hope to enter politics.
I hope to be significant.

But ‘hope’ it not a strategy. If I want to do any of those things, I really need to crack on and start working out how. I need to plan, get organised, talk to people, start doing stuff, write to people, take risks, and so on.

I believe it’s good to dream. But hope alone isn’t going to get me there.
 

Created on Mon 5th October 2009 15:37