Hope Is Not A Strategy

Earlier today I was on a call with a conference coordinator. We were discussing my upcoming programs at their hospital and, as always, I was anxious to get all the details I could. Having lots of info helps me craft something that will be most meaningful to my audience.

At one point in our convo, I complimented this gentleman on his attention to detail. We were discussing a portion of my time with the audience when there will be a three minute multi media presentation. He had the minutes broken down into 15 second segments which help bolster the next. As well as this is already being planned out, I know it’s just going to rock!

During this discussion, he made an offhand comment where he said, “I hope this is all going to be really impactful…but as we say around here, “hope is not a strategy.’”

Hope is not a strategy.

I had to ponder that when we hung up. Hope is not a strategy. I think we all inherently know this. Why then, do we make a vague idea about how we want things to go and hope it’ll all work out well? I mean, we do this, right? At least, I do this. And ya know what? It’s lazy.

Simply hoping for something to happen is passive. It’s lazy. It accomplishes nothing. It’s like crossing your fingers-you may think it’ll help, but it won’t. Why? Because hope is just hope…it isn’t a strategy.

Based on this conversation, I’m going to try to remove “I hope” from my vocabulary. Instead, I’ll spend some extra time creating a strategy and then implementing that strategy. After all, it’s not the hopers and dreamers who end up accomplishing great things: it’s the doers. The people who put their noses to the grindstone with intention and forethought about what they want to achieve. This is who I want to be. This is what I want to be. I want a strategic life, not one that simply hopes.