1. Recharge your batteries. Nobody does well running on empty.
2. Raise your expectations. Life really can be far greater than anything you’ve known.
3. Refocus on the future. Don’t look back; concentrate on what you can become.
4. Play to your strengths. Be yourself; everyone else is taken.
5. Refuse to go it alone. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto.
6. Replace burnout with balance. Variety refreshes, restores, and reenergizes.
7. Play great defense. Learn to respond to bad news in great ways.

Building The Seven into your life will increase your hope level dramatically. And when that happens, anything is possible.

Recently, I spoke about The Seven at a weeklong conference. When the chart lit up the screen, I could hear people all over in the crowd say, “Got it!” I told them, as I’m telling you now, “I’m not talking so much about hope but about seven critical factors that, when they are rising in your life, will give you genuine hope.”

Let me tell you how important this is to me. Every year, I set goals. Sometimes they go well; sometimes they don’t. Five years ago, I had one goal for the whole year. I was going to work for 365 days to do one thing—raise my hope level. My goal was to be more hope-filled at the end of the year than I was at the start of the year.

By that time, I had learned that hope would improve my relationships, my marriage, and my impact, and I would be a whole lot more fun to be around. Not too long into that year, though, I realized I couldn’t raise my hope level by wishing to be more hopeful.

You raise your hope level by investing in The Seven. Why is raising your Hope Quotient job one? Simple—the ripple effect. Raising these seven leads to hope, which leads to fresh vision, which leads to great new things in your life, health, finances, and future. In short, raising your HQ changes everything, because you will finally be living with a solid, secure, emotionally healthy, and spiritually solid foundation.

In my next blog, I’ll talk about the most important question I was ever asked—and what the answer means to you.

YOUR HQ BOOSTER

Becoming a person with hope is always a result of raising the seven hope factors

The post How Do You Become a Person of Hope? appeared first on Hope Quotient.

Great book—brilliant idea! It just didn’t go far enough.

I’ve been a professor, pastor, coach, husband, and dad (by far the hardest job), and I’m currently president of Thrive Communications, which means that every year I’m face-to-face with more than three hundred thousand people in some context (Whew, I’m getting tired just writing this!). Every day I have the privilege of working with a broad cross-section of accomplished people—everyone from CEOs to soccer moms. And this is what I’ve observed: IQ and EQ are not enough.

Let me pose some simple questions. Why are some people more effective than other people? Why do some enjoy life while others endure life? Why do some soar while others sink? Consider some specific scenarios, because it’s the same in every area of life. Why are some marriages closer? Why do some parents get more out of parenting? Why do some business people advance in their careers while others plateau? Why do some people thrive emotionally, seem more happy, more fulfilled? In short, why are some people just personally, emotionally, and relationally in better shape? 

Let me give you the theme of these blogs in one sentence: Thriving people thrive for one reason—they commit to things that produce inner strength and hope.

And here’s the good news. Unlike IQ and EQ, which are largely inherited, your degree of hope, your “Hope Quotient” or HQ, can be developed to any level.

I have invested seven years into researching and writing the book, The Hope Quotient: Measure It. Raise It. You’ll Never Be the Same. It’s been worth every second.

What happens when you mix tough circumstances with hope-filled people? I’ll be exploring that in the next blog!

YOUR HQ BOOSTER

Thriving people thrive for one reason—they commit to things that produce inner strength and hope.

The post Why Thriving People Thrive appeared first on Hope Quotient.