When You Wish Upon A Star

Why Should We Strive For Success If We Don’t Have Hope?

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Soul’s Journey!

My other half and I love to kayak fish. I started fishing as a child with my dad. We’d go to local reservoirs on weekends and occasional summer trips to Lake Tahoe. I tried kayak fishing with my guy almost 4 years ago and we now do that almost every weekend (weather permitting). Why is it, then, that I can go more days not catching any while he catches almost every time we go out? We use the same or similar gear. We fish the same areas.

He used to tell me it was because I didn’t believe I would catch anything, and that is true sometimes. But there are times we go out and I’m in a good mood and excited and confident, but still don’t catch anything.

I don’t know the answer, except that I’m probably just not that good at fishing. But I still go out every time, hopeful. And at the very least, I get some relaxing time on the water with my favorite person!

Here’s to hope! 🎣

~Suzanne

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In the Tarot, The Star represents hope.

We wish upon a star. Ships follow the constellations to find direction. The three Magi followed the star to find the Christ child. We strive to be stars in our field. We get gold stars for our achievements. Our sun, a star, provides life sustaining energy.

So often we embark on a new endeavor with thoughts of success and recognition, especially when starting a new business. We’ve studied (maybe a little). We’ve put out a handful of effort. We see others who have had (seemingly) overnight success and we want that too. This quick fix is prevalent these days with the advance of short form social media and instant gratification.

We DO all the things (at least a little bit for a little while), but without HOPE we aren’t bringing the energy of success into our reality. Our focus is on the outcome and not the journey.

If we don’t have hope that we can succeed, we may unconsciously sabotage our own efforts. Without hope, we’re likely only putting in half-hearted effort. If we don’t truly believe in our work, how can we possibly succeed? Why would we even try if we don’t have hope of succeeding?

Bringing hope into the equation, also brings a sense of anticipation, of working towards and waiting for the success. We take each step consciously, working toward the next step and the final outcome.

Hope implies there is a sense of uncertainty, and that uncertainty pushes us forward.

When the Magi started following the star, they weren’t quite sure what to expect or how long it would take to get there. But they followed their hope with faith that their astrological studies would come to fruition. It’s said that their journey originated in Babylon (in modern day Iraq) which is about 900 miles from Jerusalem. That’s a long way to trek on camels in the desert in “hope” of something great.

Hope comes from the heart

Hope is that extra secret ingredient that makes success that much sweeter. Hope is the longing in our hearts that drives passion. And passionate drive brings success.

We can mechanically go about our days doing task after task for success in completion, but hope and the message of the Star brings us success all along the journey.

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What I’m Reading This Week

Here are some other ‘stacks that have caught my attention this week. Check them out and subscribe or share if you like what they have to say:

How to be imperfect

I used to suffer for my art