The future of my Hope

How many of you have heard the expression that the best predictor of the future, is past behaviors? We use this as a way to deter ourselves from expecting more from people than we think is safe. Makes sense I suppose. We are creatures of habit, and until someone shows us they have parted ways from past behaviors, I suppose we should anticipate more of the same.

Where does this leave us in regard to having hope though? Some people are eternal optimists, always expecting the best outcomes, then we have our nihilists, expecting the worst. As we know though, life is not binary, and for me, I am very happy about that. This means I have a choice.

It is easy to convince yourself, or the lies in your head try to, that there is nothing to hope for in the future. This past weekend’s events, spanning from Australia to Rhode Island, with some shocking news out of Los Angeles in-between, certainly gives pause for anyone to consider whether the future holds any hope for us. I don’t deny the gravity of what we are facing as a collective people, and my concern is that we either check-out (disassociate), become numb (desensitized), or run to the closest force available to protect ourselves at any cost, as a result.

I am the most guilty of all for allowing the culmination of affronts by others change the very nature of who I am. It was mostly insidious, and when confronted with my own internal force protection, I would try and coach myself into being cheerier, but it lacked sustainability.

This morning I realized I could be more cheerier, more hopeful about my/our future, by using the past in a different way.

Any time I lived through a difficult or painful situation and came out okay on the other side, I can tell myself that it can happen again. I can use the history of times I survived the bad thing, or when a situation turned around for the better, as proof that it can happen again.

This time, I can use the past as a predictor of the future, by choosing the things of the past that turned out okay, that turned around, that worked out, when I showed up for myself, when a friend showed up for me, when staying hopeful worked out, to encourage myself that it indeed, can happen again.

Good Past + Present= Hope for the future

It is the only formula that makes sense. I can use the past either as a weapon of self-destruction, or as a balm of self-care. And the choice I make, truly determines how the world sees me. If I choose the formula that brings light to my eyes and effervescence to my step, I can feel good knowing that energy will influence others in the same way. It’s a gift that keeps giving, thereby truly changing the world.

It’s not always the words we speak that influence the world around us, but the energy within us.

I’d like to meet you on a day where you choose to remember the time a friend came to your home on your hard day and proved to you that loyalty was real. Or when you bring into the present moment, the day you thought things would never.get.better, but they surely did. When the future looked bleak, but you got the phone call offering you the job.

Let that past be a predictor of the future.

THAT past can propel both of us into a kinder, softer day, bring hope for the things to come, and that in of itself, will be paid forward by sheer osmosis (and sometimes buying the coffee for the car behind you can do that too).

I have hope for us.

Big smiles,

Elisha