There is a store near my home that has in its display windows in letters six-feet high: “HOPE IS A VERB.” Those words caused me to look up “hope” as a verb – and it appears to me to be the intersection of expecting, wishing and being optimistic. Clearly, “hope as a verb” implies action.
I wondered: Can hope ever be passive and be a verb? What does “hoping as a verb” look like or feel like? What are they trying to say with that message in the window?
Someone mentioned in Study Hall on Monday that Christopher Reeve said, “Once you choose hope, anything is possible.” Hope, in that context is an active choice in favor of particular results . . . . and in favor of limitless possibility.
How often are your hopes backed by action? What needs to happen to make “hope a verb” that we can all use in service of having lives that work brilliantly on all levels? Is there any truth to, “I hope; therefore, I am”?
Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.