Hope In Action
11 Feb 2026 · 15 min
Sean Butner defines optimism as hope in action, arguing that a positive mindset comes from daily habits, not wishful thinking. He shares three practices that take under ten minutes: morning journaling about what excites you, a daily reminder with three cue words, and two slow breaths before shifting tasks.
Chapters
Foreign. Welcome to the Meaningful Revolution Podcast. I am your host and certified high performance coach, Sean Butner. And we're going to be talking about hope, and more importantly, we're talking about optimism. Because it's my belief that optimism is hope in. And what do I mean by that? Hope is this wish that we can have a change in our lives. So if you've ever wished that you're more time with your family, you wish that you were starting your own business, you wish that you were at the top position in your company, in your field, that people looked up to you, you had a wish for more abundance in your life, you had a wish for more health in your life, you wish for more time with parents or kids. It's that hope, that, that feeling that we. This yearning, this desire for change that drives a lot of human behavior. But optimism is when we start to act. Because behind that optimism, I believe, is the belief that through our actions we can change our lives and. Sounds flippant, yes, but it's true. It's something that in my life I've proven over and over. I've helped my coaching clients over and over again. And ultimately, I think part of the Meaningful Revolution podcast here is to help you kindle that hope, but get an action towards building that meaningful and fulfilling life that you want for yourself, for your families, for your communities. Because it can feel overwhelming sometimes when we want to change jobs, we want to change how our romantic life is, how we want to change our health, but we're not getting the results that we want. And in clients it's like, yeah, I tried everything, but it's not working. And there's a certain amount of defeat in their voice. Can't go on another date, man, if I go on another date, I'm going to go nuts because I'm not finding my person. Or it's like, hey, I've been putting in 60, 70 hour weeks at the office trying to get this promotion. I've been doing it for three months and they just promoted the other guy. And I am now wondering, like, why did I do all that extra work to not get rewarded? And you know, behind that, I think there's a fear you're stuck. There's a fear that maybe all that effort, all of the trying, all the things doesn't matter. And I'm here to tell you and cheer you on that, that it does matter, that that showing up, that just because you're not getting the results that you want doesn't necessarily mean you're not getting closer to that grand vision you have for yourself. So how do you go from that place where maybe you're not having the most positive mindset into a place where you're building a healthy, happy mindset that'll help move you forward in your life? And that's the question, right? This would be the time where I talk about, maybe you hire a coach to help guide you through a process. Maybe you talk to a mentor, maybe you talk to a friend. Maybe you do a little bit of that personal development work that we all need to do in order to get to that place where in spite of the things going on around us, we're happy, we are making progress towards our goals. We feel like we're making an impact with what we're doing and we really follow through and we keep right. It's a lot of a sustainability game when it comes to how your mindset is, and it's going to be more sustainable if you have a positive, strong, optimistic, action, focused mindset versus one that's defeated. So that's what I want to talk with you about today. It's also as much of you can have those emotions that are dragging you down, but how do you also go from having that dream and putting it in action? I have three really quick tips for y' all here to help you create a positive mindset every day. And these are very simple. You could set these up within 10 minutes, 5 minutes probably, but we'll give you 10 minutes after listening to this podcast, this episode to really do some light corrections or enlightenment enhancements to really build that positive mindset so that when the inevitable curve fall that life throws us happens, you're like, okay, I can change this. I can make this better. I can do something. And yeah, so we'll get into that. And this isn't saying that you're going to be happy 100% of the time, and this isn't saying that everything's going to work out. But we gotta keep in the game, we gotta keep moving forward. And isn't it true that sometimes one event can knock us off of our productivity game and we beat up on ourselves? And that's not really helping us realize what we need to realize. We're not doing what we need to do. So first idea to help build a positive mindset every day is in the morning as part of your morning routine, which I hope everyone has a morning routine. If not, there's tons of information out there. I'll have a video of that probably here soon. I can point you guys to that. But like Tim Ferriss has a really good like morning pages one and part of that morning ritual should be journaling about what you are excited for in life in that moment. And the reasoning behind this and the power behind this is that it's really training your brain to think oh what am I looking forward to? And starting the day with excitement instead of that march into the office where at least for me early on in my career in tech it was jump out of bed, take a five minute shower while the pot of coffee is going that I'd set up the night before, grab a quick to go thing of breakfast or like yogurt or something like that, granola and yogurt or something and drive in a pot of coffee, little cup of yogurt with granola in it and start the day super stressed and already not giving my mindset space to really feel the day, to really feel that oh, like there's going to be a bunch of stuff today that I don't want to do or that I'm really tired and exhausted. But I'm doing it so that I can see my friends. I'm doing it so I can see that person that I'm dating at that time. I'm doing this so that I can play music at night out on the open mic circuit or whatever that is for you. That's what it was for me at that point in my life. But there's a shift that comes from starting the day stressed out in a rush to growing into the cave and taking a half hour to drink your coffee in a journal. About hey, I'm really excited that this week we get to finish this project at work. I'm really excited that we're going to go see one of my favorite musicians playing at the local place or we're going to go to the museum or there's all these life happens and there's a lot of things that we could be excited about that sometimes you just are in it and when you're in it that's fine. But it'll behoove your mindset to be like, oh, I'm excited for these things and this is why I'm doing it. So that's the trick between journaling about what you're excited for in life right now. The second thing to do when you are hoping for a change and you want to build a positive mindset around it. So it's two things here is to every day set a reminder that cheers you on as your best self. I know this sounds a little weird and a little hokey but it's powerful to at 8 o' clock in the morning, I have a habit where I'll see three words that I aspire to be my best self every day. It's something that I teach in my high performance coaching practice. And those words are optimistic presence and creative. Right? So I know that when I am those three things in my personal life, I feel like I am my best self and firing on all cylinders in that flow state. And so that's what I'm aspiring to be. And it's also a message to, hey, you are going after building this coaching business and I actually have to update it. I haven't really put in building podcast here yet and go out and crush it, man, you're doing great. And it's weird to have that pop up every day. And here is the advanced tip here though, right? So many people, clients and friends that I convinced to do this will see that go off every day and just, oh, there it is. And then they go back into rushing in the morning. But if you're a really high performer, if you're someone that takes your personal development seriously, take a look at that and go, wow, this is what I'm aspiring to be. This is who I want to be. This is my. I'm cheering myself on here to and reminding myself why, what I'm focused on and why it's important. And that can be in itself a game changer. And it could shift your shift your morning from kind of being grumpy and like, why am I doing this? I'm like, oh, yeah, that's right. It's because this work helps people or this work has an impact in this particular way. So that's a very powerful, very simple habit that's available to everyone. Especially since you're probably listening to this on your phone somewhere. If you're watching or listening to the podcast, set a reminder to cheer yourself on, remind yourself of your highest self. That's point number two. And then so many times when we forget that sense of optimism, that, that sense of intention, when we come into work, we come back home, we're going into that sales meeting, we are going into that really important, heavy meeting with the doctor. That kind of stuff is to have this habit of. In those transition moments, as you're getting into your car, as you're entering your home or entering the office, is to very quickly. This takes literally 10 seconds. Take two seconds to close your eyes and take two slow, deep breaths in and out, just, Just to get a little bit of oxygen, just settle in a little bit and remind yourself what your intention is going in to see the kids after work. And I've had clients that have broken down having done this thing because the energy that they bring to the their kids and that particular situation, they weren't meeting what they wanted to and they're feeling guilty about it. And this allowed them to just take a beat enough to really connect, to slow down and not let the days going on impact what was happening with their young children. So it's super powerful. But yeah, like I said, is just two deep breaths in with your eyes closed before going into home or you know, every time you leave your car. These are some triggers that people use. I like to in between tasks even you can get super granular, find out what works for you. But these are three habits I think can really help change you and help you build an optimistic, action focused mindset. And again, if you're excited about what's going on in the day, you're going to be a lot more motivated. If you are cheering yourself on and connecting with why you're doing what you're doing, you're going to be able to be a little bit more resilient during the day. And if you can manage those transition moments and end with a little bit more tension, that's when the magic all this to say I just want to end with we can do more than we think, right? We are more capable, we have more agency over our lives than we realize a lot. I firmly believe this. It's happened in my life a lot of times and a lot of taking that opportunity for action. We're acting on that optimism, acting on that hope to create optimism, which is hope in action. It's that belief that by daily actions we can change the trajectory of our lives. And that's my hope for you. And if you need a little bit of extra help with that, I'll let you know. You can sign up for that free strategy session below where we'll spend an hour on a call, you and I and go through and build a custom performance plan for you with more habits like the ones we talked today. So. So if that's your bag, check out that link below. Gets fill out the application. You get to select the option for free. A private session which is paid and then we schedule the call. We have an amazing conversation and we talk about coaching if you're interested continuing that. But that first session, that strategy session is free for y'. All. Just make sure you sign up before they fill up. They tend to fill up every week pretty quick. So check out that link below or you go to www.schlembutter.com coaching and that'll get you set up with the application. A little video, but anyways, if you are wanting to be more optimistic and put again more action to things that you hope happen, then do these three habits. If you need some extra help again hit that link below and go out there. Live with more joy, more personal growth or more personal progress and more impact in your communities. This is Sean Butner signing off. Take care.
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