What’s the Point? How to Stop Feeling Hopeless

You got a fast car is fast enough that we can fly away still gotta make a decision. Leave to not live and die this way. Fast car but Tracy Chapman is incredible song. Such an incredible song back on my radar. Although it was never that far off, somebody named Luke combs remade it. This is not a conversation about that. Some people are having it. It’s an incredible song. Talking about hopelessness and hope, and Fear and Desire and angst and desire for more talking about human potential, an impossible situation talked about if we could just do this one thing, think just do this one thing, that things could be so much better things could be so much different from me, for us. It’s been a little while you should really listen to that song. Because it’s such a good one. It gives me this this very strong, almost visceral reaction. Because we’ve all felt that way. We’ve all felt like, what’s the point to this? What am I doing here? I’m stuck, trapped. I don’t like this. I feel it’s a sense of hopelessness. No matter what I do an impossible situation that I can’t get out of. Maybe you feel that way. Now, if you felt that way in the past, I think that we all certainly have. And that’s one of the things about music, that it taps into those parts of us. Bruce Springsteen is one of my favorites. And fast car reminds me a lot of the river. That just taps in again to these just emotional reactions and feelings that are part of the human experience. And when you are actually in the situation where you feel like there’s no hope and you feel like what’s the point? That’s an impossible situation. It’s a terrible situation to be in. And, again, I know that I’ve certainly felt that way in the past. And I want to talk about what my experience or rather how I think that if you are feeling that way now, what you can do what what can be done to sort of move you past that. My work, professionally work, professionally work, my work, when I’m working on one aspect of my work is focused on helping employees of companies manage their money. And that means that I work with employees that make a lot of money that are really high income earners. And it also means that I work with people who earn very little. And it’s a problem. Both are problems. If you’re feeling financially, like you’re stuck, and you’re feeling like financially, you can’t get ahead and you’re just you’re stuck, trapped, no options. It’s an even harder problem, when you are working your butt off, working multiple jobs and can’t make ends meet possible to get ahead. And when you’re working and thinking about money in general, there’s lots of statistics. So many statistics out there, two thirds of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, whatever, name it, you know, half of us couldn’t come up with 500 bucks in case of an emergency, so many statistics, and I can’t do anything with a million people. I can’t do anything with 1000 people. But I can absolutely do something and have a really I think profound and positive impact with the person than of sitting across the table from the person that I’m having an actual interaction with and conversation. Can I fix that massive 2000 person problem? No. Can I help the one person John or Jane across table from me? Figure out how to stop feeling like what’s the point I’m stuck, I’m trapped. What can I do? And it’s not just money. We we people human beings feel like what’s the point was so many things in life these days with our health, if you’re overweight and you’re struggling With your weight, or you’re not healthy you have whatever it is struggling with depression or anxiety or diabetes, struggling with relationships, you’re lonely, you can’t seem to find a partner, you’re having a tough relationship with your existing partner, you can’t get through to your kids, so many situations in life where you want to throw your hands up and just say, eff it, you know, what’s the point of all this? feel hopeless, I can’t get anywhere. And here’s what I know, what I know for sure, is that if you have no vision for a future, or life that is better than the one you have today, then there’s very little chance that you’re going to actually have a better future. Tomorrow, a year from now, a couple of years from now. Like Tracy Chapman talks about just, we can make this change we get in your car, we can drive out of here, get out of this burned out city, get all this debt and town on to something better, there’s an opportunity for us to do that. It’s the hope, being hopeful promise of better tomorrow. That’s an essential component to what our lives are. It’s essential component to getting unstuck, feeling like you are not trapped, that your future will be better or can be and will be better than your past. That’s an essential mindset. And one that is very much easier said than done. That it’s essential to, to create that vision of what you really want. And it’s obvious, but it’s one of those things that sounds easy, but does hard. We are all so wrapped up in the doing of our everyday lives of putting fires out and bills to pay and work to do and everything else that it can be in seemingly is an impossibility. To have a little bit of headspace to be able to say okay, what is it that I really want? Might not be possible? Might not be it might be impossible. But if it were, what would I want? What would I want my life to look like? Where would I want to be? What would I want to be doing? What could give me a little bit of breathing room? How could I get some peace of mind? How can I stopped being so anxious? What would that take? What would that take? And what I encourage you to do is or encouraged people in your lives that you’re interested in and helping to think about their future in in three year increments instead of one year increments or instead of 50 year increments. 50 years is way too abstract. It’s like 2000 People like I was talking about versus sitting down with an individual and having a conversation with them. And one year is just not enough time to actually get anything done. So three years is good. You can really make your life can be dramatically if not completely different. Three years from today. Think about it. Could you lose 100 pounds in one year? Now? Could you lose 100 pounds in three years? Probably? Could you be debt free in a year? Maybe? Could it be? Could you be debt free in three years? Yeah, probably. Could you have a completely new career in a year? Maybe? Could you have a completely new current three years? Yes. Because you have a family and a year? Maybe that’s cutting it pretty close? Could you have a family in three years? Yes, you could absolutely start a family. So it’s just it’s simple little tweaks here and there to give you the tools that you need to frame the problem and to be able to attack or approach the problem correctly. So that’s it. You need to create a compelling vision for your future that will pull you towards it. Versus you just grinding it out day after day after day.

And again, I totally get it. We’ve been there. And we all love a comeback story. We all love the hero’s journey. It’s it’s the framework, the plot of so many of our great stories of our great movies, great songs, all these things and you are fully capable or hopefully the people in your life that you’re trying to help are fully capable of making their own comeback story of completing their own hero’s journey of going through it terrible times, getting past it and on to the life, the experiences, the things that you really, truly do want. So figure out what it is what what that better future can look like, make a plan for actually realizing it, bringing that desire three years from now into your current reality, what’s it going to take to actually do that, and just start small, start taking little steps toward it. That’s how we, that’s how we accomplish and solve every big problem. You can’t just do it all at once. And when we try to do it all at once, it’s we we, we fail. We can’t do it all at once takes small baby steps. And it’s funny, I, I listened to I listened to fast car on YouTube this morning. And you can just watch the video or you can actually some people put together and put the lyrics on there. And I wanted to get the lyrics, right. So I’m reading the lyrics. And after the after the after the video was over, an ad comes up as as they do. And it was an ad for some kind of a college talking about change your future. Just thought it’s so funny, right? Because that’s what it’s all about. So it’s perfect targeting. So like you’re listening to fast car, you might be feeling like, like you’re stuck. And what’s the point? So great targeting. I’m not enrolling in a university program anytime soon. But maybe that’s what you need to do. Maybe that’s a great option for you is to, you know, get a new certification or degree, whatever, I don’t know what it is that I’m thinking at. Universities are thinking it. And I know that you potentially are thinking that too, because you’re watching that video or watching this video rather. So to give you some resources for helping you or helping the people that you care for. To do that we have a free goals course, which is essentially doing what it is that I’ve been talking about. It’s thinking about and creating a plan and a compelling vision for your future. And it’s free, you can access it. If you’re struggling with money, we also have a free get out of debt course, walks you through the steps of getting out of credit card debt. And then we have a free values course which from my perspective, once we know what our values are, we start applying them. The the filter through which and by which we make decisions about things and allocate our most important resources of time, attention, energy and money. And when we can link all those things up the future that we want, you know, creating goals and actions around that and getting really clear on what’s most important to us. That’s when we start positioning ourselves for success. And my I’ve got a new book coming up pretty soon. It’s called the purpose book. And I think that you’ll also find value in that giving you a framework for helping you figure out just it’s it’s a big book, short, big book, helping you figure out just you know, if you are feeling like what’s the point I’m stuck, feeling hopeless. It’s designed to give you a vision for your future and give you a framework for how you actually make that happen. So still get to make a decision. Leave tonight are live and die this way. Do your part, like doing your best