A short dip in hopefulness? No big deal.

There’s something weird, yet normal, that I’ve noticed, and I want to tell you about it today. I want to tell you about the moment when people give up on an idea because they’ve temporarily lost hope.

In the beginning, when the idea first shows up in our minds, we get excited. We start building this idea up in our imagination. We visualize it. With our mind’s eye, we see it and we feel it. We feel enthusiastic, hopeful, and generous. It all feels easy, light, and gleeful.

But, as we work out the details of bringing this idea to life, we often experience a sudden dip in hopefulness.

When the idea existed only in our imagination, success seemed easy, logical, and a natural next step. But now that the idea is closer to being birthed into reality, the success we once imagined starts feeling like a distant, nervous memory.

Between then (imagination) and now (reality), nothing changed in the actual probability that our idea will succeed. There was no national prognosis announcing that our particular industry will sink under the ocean. We didn’t get any new evidence that our idea will flop.

In reality, nothing changed. But our minds did.

I remember a person who was head over heels excited about his new idea. He talked to me about how amazing it will all be when it’s up and running. He saw the great potential that his future business could have. He was glowing with enthusiasm. But two months later, he said…

I just don’t think the business will work out, in the end.
I just don’t see the point of this, anymore.
I just don’t see how it could work out, really.

I’ve seen this change of mind happen so often that I’ve come to believe that it’s nothing more than a natural occurrence. It’s just part of being human. Just like our skin gets red in the harsh cold and just like our lips get dry in the hot sun, so too does our hopefulness sometimes dip.

Many people give up at this point in the process. They give up because their minds changed and because they listened to this change in mind. They take this dip in hopefulness as a data point that tells them that their idea is about to flop.

But this dip in hopefulness is not indicative of success or of lack of it. The only thing that it’s indicative of is the need to bring ourselves back into alignment with our idea, with its momentum, and with its success.

It’s normal to feel less sure of success at this point in the process. Think of this point in the process as the tunnel through which a midsummer day train passes. You wanted a beautiful train ride, with sunshine and green scenery. Maybe you don’t get that scenery when you pass through a dark and slimy looking tunnel, but you know that you’ll see it again when the train gets out of the tunnel. You can get scared and jump out of the train, or you can wait patiently for the end of the tunnel with faith, hope, and understanding.