Hope Is Not A Strategy (Part Two)

Warning: this gets kind of deep. Just sayin’.

Yesterday, I ended the beginning of this loop by encouraging you to ask for what you really need.

How’s that workin’ for ya?

No doubt, there are a handful of you reading this that didn’t get around to asking for anything, right?

Some of you just don’t DO that kind of thing. Maybe you’re not even sure what you need.

So let’s continue today with a discussion on finding the patterns.

red, blue, green

Red, Blue, Green

REd, BLue, GReen

RED, BLUe, GREen

What comes next in the pattern?

The answer could be:

RED, BLUE, GREEn

rED, BLUE, GREEn

red, blue, green

red, BLUE, GREEn

At this point, we don’t really know for certain.

Why? Because we haven’t seen the full cycle.

We don’t know what the end of the cycle is. And for as much as we might think we know, the only person who really knows, is the one who designed the pattern. Only that designer knows with certainty, what the next step is in the pattern.

If your answer was “rED, BLUE, GREEn” then this designer says you were correct.

What does this mean for you?

It means you’re looking in the wrong place for the answer. You’re trying to piece together the puzzle without knowledge of what I call “the end game”. That phrase takes on all kinds of connotations, but for me, it’s simply this:

The end game is the final destination. The arrival or achievement of the goal.

Sunset. A million dollars. Losing 100 pounds. A 5,000-piece jigsaw puzzle.

It’s quantifiable. Something you can know with certainty when you’ve hit (or missed) the mark.

That’s the end game.

My contention is that everything has an end game.

Life is the ultimate end game.

Until you know what your end game is, you can’t begin to identify the pattern that applies to your situation.

If you can’t figure out the end game, your scope is too big. At least in this moment, right now, it’s too big. Pick a smaller end game.

Find something you can manage. Even if it’s as simple as getting a cup of water.

Now, find the patterns, the cycles, the natural steps that have to happen in order to reach the end game.

Get out of you chair and head to the cupboard. Get the cup. Cross to the faucet. Turn on the water. Place the cup under the water and fill. Move the cup to your lips and drink.

It’s a predictable pattern we take for granted every day of our lives. Yet many, who don’t have clean water, or a cup to drink from, or the mobility to drink for themselves, would love to figure out this pattern so that they could reach their own end game.

Instead, their end game has to be smaller: finding a source for drinkable water, getting help to feed themselves, etc.

The same goes for you.

I’m not saying stop dreaming so big – God knows I do!

I’m saying keep the dreams, and find your end game – that thing you CAN figure out.

Then ask with hope, hustle, and do what you gotta do to make it to the end game.