Yes as our Hope. Pain as our Portal.
“I imagine that Yes is the only living thing.”
“Yes” is an answer. But before there is an answer, there must be a question. And at the root of every question lies the unknown.
Life (and business (because gone are the days when those two were separate)) is uncertain. We do not know what the future will bring. Yet, our present and future realities are shaped by how we respond to this perpetual uncertainty. And it is within our responses that we offer ourselves and others a glimpse into our beliefs about what the future will hold for us.
Every single time we extend ourselves by way of saying Yes — to an opportunity, a connection, a relationship — we open ourselves up to the possibility of pain. Our yeses are our chips placed on the bet of Hope.
In light of the possibility of pain, I believe that one of the most courageous things we can do as humans is to say, “Yes” to a new thing. And yet, even when an opportunity does not pan out, even when a relationship ends in heartache, even when a dream is crushed and scattered . . . even when we find ourselves in the midst of deep anguish — a pain so intimate that its only point of access to us was through the burnt offerings of our holy yeses — to, in that moment, still believe that our Yes was not in vain. This is the essence of courage.
Kahlil Gibran wrote, “Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.”
When we move out of our no’s, we allow for personal evolution out of our fears. But growth does not stop there. Our yeses are never guaranteed wins. Our yeses always come with risk. When we lose the bet, the temptation will always be to preserve the self through attempts at diminishing our pain — we do this by either downplaying our deeply held hope or by shifting the responsibilities of our previous yeses on to someone or something else. This is called emotional and/or spiritual bypassing, and it does not work. The only way to obtain deeper understanding, empathy and wisdom is to walk through the pain of the ashes of our hopes.
The world wants you to shrink your hope. The world wants to break you down and see your stuck in your no’s (aka Lack Mentality). The world wants you to stop dreaming. Do not give in & do not give up. Shift your perspective and observe your pain as your portal toward something greater than your current reality. Commit your mind to obtaining your highest good in this life. Collect today’s ashes, made of yesterday’s yeses, and sew them into the soil of the Hope of tomorrow. Your Harvest will surely come.
