How we define hope….

Hope can be defined in many ways. It can be defined as inspiration, motivation, or a desired idea that we fixate on. But what happens when the desired idea is dead. No longer inspirational or motivational? These are all great tools, but our imagination is the main ingredient to hope.

I had a conversation yesterday with one of our youth. He was sharing with me his frustration in his lack of motivation. He said it really doesn’t matter what it is. Even if it is something he wants he still can’t find the energy to be motivated. I asked him what do you feel when you think of the desired outcome, he explained he thinks of all the work it will take to accomplish the goal and it makes him not want it anymore. I understood what he meant because I also feel this lack of desire when I think of the desired outcome. It’s not always inspiring, nor is it motivating because we have the power to imagine as humans. We can feel what it would feel like working night after night after that dream or goal within our imagination.

I explained to him that our imagination has been hijacked. We have many things around us, such as movies, books, YouTube, etc., that already create our imagination. These different platforms give us the blueprint of what to expect when we have a certain desired outcome. Don’t get me wrong, many of these imaginative expressions can be very accurate when it comes to our imagination, but it’s not the exact experience. Every human is different and we all feel things differently. We have different points of view and ultimately a different perspective.

I asked him when you were a baby how did you learn how to walk? Do you think you knew what motivation was? What about inspiration? He said he didn’t know, but he feels like he wouldn’t know what motivation is at that age. I said exactly, we make things more difficult then it really is because we let other imagination influences our imaginations.

As a baby, curiosity was the driving force of our imagination. Curiosity is creativity and to be creative, you must be in the moment. When we are in the moment, we are exercising the idea of “ what if.” This is the action of trying something with an experimental outcome. This means we have an outcome, but the learning process is greater than the outcome. When we learn, we can transition to another level of curiosity which then explains the imagination.

At Seed House Project, hope isn’t a destination but a personal imagination. It’s the journey of curiosity of one’s identity. It’s the process of exercising the “ What ifs” and living in the moment of unlimited possibilities