It’s time to stop hoping for a better career and a better life. 

Successful people don’t believe in hope. Instead, they have faith.

The hope-to-faith transition will have a powerful impact.

Definition of Hope: A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.

Definition of Faith: Complete trust or confidence in something.

How moving from “hope” to “faith” will completely change your career and life

The conventional mindset is to hope. To hope is to leave things to chance. When we have faith, we know we’re going to make it. (There’s no hoping about it). Faith will transform you not only in thought but in action. All successful people, whether they are aware of it or not, use faith.

Hope will do the following.

• Hope will force you to wait for things to happen.
• Hope will create disappointment when desires are unfulfilled.
• Hope will encourage non-action and the false belief that things will happen on their own (they don’t).
• Hope will absolve you of any responsibility.
• Hope shows uncertainty.

“The only person who can pull me down is myself, and I’m not going to let myself pull me down anymore.”

― C. JoyBell C.

Faith is far more effective. It will reposition your mind towards rock solid commitment.

Faith will do the following.

• Faith will compel you to act so that your belief will materialize.
• Faith shows total commitment rather than the uncertainty of hope.
• Faith allows us to seek and find a positive outcome.
• Faith in ourselves supports self-esteem and self-confidence.
• Faith forces us to overcome obstacles.
• Faith means you believe in yourself.

“Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe, your mind will find the ways to do it. Believing a solution paves the way to solution.”

― David J. Schwartz, The Magic of Thinking Big

See yourself in the job or career you want

To have faith is to visualize. See yourself in a certain job or career. Picture it in your mind’s eye. Feel it in your heart. Be that person already.

Your subconscious mind will then take its orders. It will find ways to make that picture come true. It will signal you to think of ways of making things happen, and it will follow through with the required actions.

People believe that faith is nonsense – that it leaves things to the power of the Universe. In fact, faith is the opposite. It promotes responsibility and action. It’s about thinking the things, and doing the things, needed to turn our goals into reality.

Great Careers are built on faith

Actor Tobey Maguire supports the commitment to faith. In his words, “I always knew I was going to be successful.”

Maguire says our imagination is not tethered to reality or statistics or anything of real world limitations. He believes that our lives are a product of our imagination.

Think of the power of that statement: “Our lives are a product of our imagination.”

Maguire imagined (visualized) that he was going to be a successful actor, no matter what.

After being fired from working in an ice cream shop, the then 16 year old Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank fame, took a leap of faith and decided he would be his own boss “no matter what.”

The challenge we face

The challenge we face is not so much “Can we do it?” but rather “What will we do?” Once you can answer that second question, let faith take over and make it happen.

Successful people know – they do not hope – that they will be successful.

They have faith.

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Oprah Winfrey had faith she would make it. In this brief video clip, she says most of us can only “hope” because we feel unworthy. Oprah wants us to have faith and act as though we have already achieved success.

Top Photo credit: Tobey Macguire at the Toronto International Film Festival, Courtesy of GDC Graphics