Welcome to Career Advise, the newsletter providing career advice, how-tos, and life musings through an optimistic and intriguing lens.

Each week, you will receive two newsletters written by the Oppstartr Team. Mondays — Our career-focused newsletter. Fridays — Out of Office where we discuss life and other thought-provoking ideas.

Today’s Pillar: Temper the Mind

More than Important. It’s Foundational.

The hope of a better and brighter career path and future and that it waits for you is not daydreaming. It is crucially important. Believing in yourself and having hope for your future is a foundational mindset. If you do not hold this idea close to your heart, positive outcomes will pass by. Simply put, you cannot expect to advance if you do not believe there are opportunities for a better future.

True Hope

When we hear the word “hope”, we can sometimes have a connotation of “wishful thinking” attached to it. We should not hold on to false hope because it is divorced from reality. A false hope can be just as troubling as no hope at all. Wishful thinking and false hope are not true hope.

Numerous opportunities are in the world as you read these words. You have to hope some are there for you! Believing there are opportunities for you is a true hope. Perhaps this is a better job, moving up the ladder, or starting a business. People just like yourself have found success. Your dreams are within reach.

You are far more capable than you realize. Never lose sight of this truth.

Having No Hope is a Road to Nowhere

Consider the opposite of believing that better jobs and opportunities are in your future. You would never take action or seek your dreams because why would you without hope? An antonym of hope is despair. Is this a mindset you want to hold? How would that change you? How would that affect those around you? I guarantee you would despise the outcome.

Finding Hope

It seems in our culture it is almost naïve or uncool to possess hope, or that if you are hopeful, you are just in la-la land. If our peers hold this idea, then try not to fit in. This is an example of one of those “bad ideas” we discussed in our first newsletter. If you are lacking in hope, or feel that you have no hope at all, there is good news. You were not born with a finite level of hope for the rest of your life. Hope can be improved and developed, and you must develop hope. Since we can cultivate hope, we can also lose hope. Your actions and daily consumptions can increase or decrease your hope, so choose wisely.

Guard your hope as if your life depends on it because it does. Your life runs on hope.

Thought and Action

• Do you have hope?

• Do you believe a better future lies in wait?

• How can you cultivate and guard your hope?

Thank you for reading Career Advise. Be sure to read our upcoming Out of Office issue on Friday.

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