No hope, really?

If you assume that there is no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, that there are opportunities to change things, then there is a possibility that you can contribute to making a better world. – Noam Chomsky

It’s a question of choice. Which path are you going to choose, the one where there is no hope (and we are all doomed) or the one where there are opportunities to change things? No matter how little the changes are, I choose the path of change.

Everyone talks about being positive all the time, having a positive mindset makes life easier. Whilst it does, it’s difficult to feel positive all the time so don’t beat yourself up if you are feeling down, the difference is how you react when you’re feeling unhappy. You have a choice, keep going down the path of unhappiness, bringing more unhappiness and dissatisfaction and beating yourself up which brings more unhappiness, dissatisfaction,…. , (see the pattern there?) or taking the path of saying ok, I’m feeling unhappy, it’s not how I like it to feel, so what can I do to change it? How long do I want to feel unhappy to last for? one minute, one hour, one month, a lifetime? It’s all in the mind, once you decide to change things, you can! and the great thing is that it’s up to you what you decide, it’s your choice. No one is forcing you to take one path or the other, no one is deciding for you, it’s all up to you. You want to feel unhappy for the rest of the day, ok, be unhappy for the day, or the month or the year and take responsibility for it, don’t blame others for your unhappiness though, it’s your choice to stay unhappy.

And also, take responsibility if you choose to go down the path of wanting to change something and change how you feel. Some people will tell you, it’s not normal to be ok when there should be no hope, it’s not ok to see the good side of life and learn from the lessons it throws at you. Stand up and state that you choose the opportunity to change the way you feel and change things so that you can contribute to making a better world, no matter how small the scale. Speak with conviction, clarity, integrity and authenticity. Some will laugh at you, some will be envious of you, some will help you and some will change their own way of thinking to be more like you.

So what are you going to do? which path are you going to take today? what about tomorrow?

There are so many things to say about this quote, a load of different paths I could take to start a discussion, I’ve chosen to speak about choices. What do you have to say ?