I actually wrote a very different blog post than both the content and tone of the following post would lead you to believe. It was sort of a “if I could wave a magic wand” post about my idyllic view of organized real estate. On advice of some smart people, it was not deemed ready for prime time. So, instead of me pissing a lot of people off, you get this fine piece of motivational writing.

I am relatively serious about the choice of words we use. For example, one of my agents and I had a conversation just today about the difference between spending time and investing time. I think that the choice of words we use is important for a variety of reasons. Foremost amongst them is the impact that they have on others. However, in some cases, almost as important is the impact it has on our own mindset. See the aforementioned example of how one might employ one’s time. If we look at all time as spent, we might not look at the fruit of our labors in the same light as we would if we looked at the time as invested. Now, looking at it as time invested, we see the fruit as a return on investment. Hopefully, it helps us prioritize how we utilize our time. You get it.

Let’s look at a word that gets used too much and an alternative that doesn’t get used enough.

Hope

I sure hope that you have read this far. I sure hope that the market picks up. I sure hope I wake up in the morning with six pack abs and a winning lottery ticket in my pocket. Hope is a wish. Wishes are bullshit.

There are myriad business cliches about hope not being a strategy, I know. I am not going there with this post. What I want to look at, specifically as it relates to its alternative, is action.

Hoping is, decidedly, inactive in its nature. One can sit on their ass and hope and the result will not change. Hope is leaving things to luck or fate or chance or whatever you want to call it. There’s a reason things happen on a hope and a prayer. I don’t know about you, but I would rather take action and have some level of input on the result, even if I’m unsuccessful.

Faith

On the other hand, one can have faith. Faith, as opposed to hope, is like a cage match between Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Jean-Claude Van Damme in their prime. It’s all action. Faith is, by definition, reliant on some sort of action.

Faith is often tied to some sort of religious belief, so let’s roll with that. If you are a Christian, you have faith that because Jesus died on a cross (action), you are redeemed. If you are Muslim, your ticket to Paradise is literally tied to your actions. If you are Buddhist, your final thought determines your rebirth and that thought is conditioned by your actions in life. Again, you get it.

Why The Difference is Important

It probably goes without saying, at this point, that I want you to have faith because faith is conditioned upon actually doing something. We can hope all we want, but faith is what matters because faith implies that we have done all we can to achieve what we have faith in and we are now waiting to make sure that the fruit of our labors was worth the investment of the time used to create them. See what I did there? Brought it all back around and tied it in a nice little bow for you. The investment gives you faith in the result.

When in doubt, trust in the deep philosophical wisdom of George Michael and remember that you “got to have faith, faith, faith.”