“he who has health has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.” ~ thomas carlyle
there has been an overwhelming theme that has come to me over the last few weeks: HOPE.
by definition, hope is “a feeling of expectation and a desire for a certain thing to happen.” we hope we have a good day when we wake up. we hope people like us. we hope that we live a long healthy life. you get the point.
when i meet with new or prospective clients, i get a sense that they are ready to make a change. usually, they have a goal in mind and they are making a commitment to reach that goal – both financially and emotionally. they seem to have hope of the good things that are to come.
i recently was selected to be a part of leadership greater jackson – a nine-month program that consists of 40 selected leaders of the greater jackson area that is put together by the greater jackson chamber of commerce. during our opening retreat, we discussed some of the challenges facing jackson and some of the changes that need to be made for our city to advance. we even started to outline some projects that we will be doing to help fight childhood obesity in the jackson public school system. as we left our retreat, there was a sense of hope that we could make things happen this year.
we are in the middle of a presidential election this year, and honestly, i could not be more disappointed at how divided we have become when it comes to picking a leader for our country. without going too far into this subject, i will say that both sides have gone overboard on discrediting each other which only distracts each party from focusing on forming solutions to our country’s growing economic and social problems. however, if we are wise and we have learned from our past, we should see that we still should have hope for our country’s future and for our future generations.
but there is something missing in all three of these examples of how hope has been so prevalent to me over the last few weeks. with hope, one must also have knowledge and a plan of action. too often, we hope for things without taking the necessary actions to make them happen. we want to become healthier, but we don’t want to take the time to learn how to cook healthy meals or plan to exercise. we want our city to be better and a more exciting place to live, but we spend time complaining or accepting rather than advocating and doing. and when it comes to electing our political leaders, we far and away spend way to much energy pointing fingers than we do educating ourselves on policy, history and the political process.
i have hope that mississippi can be a healthier place to live. i believe this can be achieved by promoting exercise, educating people on cleaner and healthier food options, working with individuals through personal training and by supporting local business and agriculture. i also believe all of these things will make jackson a better place to live and i plan on further educating myself about local, state and national politics so that i can make an informed decision this election year.
have hope, educate yourself and execute your plan. make things happen!