A Day of Hope: How One Day Per Month Can Transform Your Life and Reclaim Forgotten Hope

By Kayla Jones

Have you experienced the feeling of forgotten hope, the sensation like you’ve lost yourself? It feels as if time is passing you by and you’re unable to see yourself in the overwhelming swirl of this crazy life. So many other things have taken your time and your zest for life: kids, family, relationships, and work. You believe self-care is only for others. You’ve forgotten how to have hope and passion for yourself.

In A Day of Hope, author Kayla Jones shares her personal journey to find hope when there seemed to be a short supply. She tells how she transformed from being overworked and overstressed to having more time and energy to do the things she loves, even when she didn’t know what that was. Jones outlines a process—a day of hope—that helped her transform her life.

A day of hope is one day, or a full twenty-four hours, for you. A day to do whatever you want, whenever you want, and however you want. On this one day, you get to choose everything. One full day to fuel up on what you want and need. A Day of Hope teaches how one day per month can transform your life, help you recover hope for a brighter future, and empower you to regain control of who you really are inside.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Mar 10, 2024
• ISBN: 9798765248874

Book preview

Copyright © 2024 Kayla Jones.

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The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

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ISBN: 979-8-7652-4888-1 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-7652-4889-8 (hc)

ISBN: 979-8-7652-4887-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2024900475

Balboa Press rev. date:  03/07/2024

I dedicate

this book to you, the reader, and everyone you share this idea with. Yes, you—the one who wants more out of life than pouring all your energy into everyone else. You, who are looking for a break and hoping to find more time to fit you into the schedule.

I believe no matter who you are or what your situation is, you are worth it, you are special, and you deserve to find the peace you’re looking for. This book is based on a simple, fun idea that every middle-aged, self-sufficient, working mom can use to find her forgotten hope and joy in her life and make herself a priority.

Contents

Introduction: A New Day Dawning

Chapter 1    The Breakdown

Chapter 2    Fueling Up

Chapter 3    Roadmap

Chapter 4    The Open Road

Chapter 5    Road Trip

Chapter 6    Speed Bumps

Chapter 7    Roadblocks and Construction

Chapter 8    Break through the Roadblocks

Chapter 9    Idiot Drivers

Chapter 10   Toll Roads

Chapter 11   Passengers

Chapter 12   Pave It Forward

Chapter 13   Drive into the Sunset

Epilogue: Years of Hope

About the Author

Introduction

A New Day Dawning

There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.

—Bernard Williams

Welcome! Thank you for following your instincts and reading this book. Already, you’ve begun your journey. This book is about how one day per month can transform your life, help you recover hope for a brighter future, and empower you to regain control of who you really are inside.

Many of us know the feeling of forgotten hope, that feeling like we have lost ourselves. Like time is passing us by and we’re unable to see ourselves in the overwhelming swirl of this crazy life. So many other things have taken over our time and our zest for life: kids, family, relationships, work, and so on. We feel like self-care is only for others. We have forgotten how to feel hope and passion for ourselves. It’s in us; it’s just been buried and forgotten. Finding that hope again will reduce the feeling of helplessness, improve our quality of life, and take away our stress.

Years ago, I was overworked, strung out, always doing for others, and never finding or taking time for myself to do what I needed or wanted. I was successful in business but headed for burnout. I felt like there was no end in sight. I didn’t know what I wanted in life. I was lonely, even though I was never alone.

Have you ever felt like this? Have you ever felt like you are a robot going through the motions of your life every day? Get up, go to work, help others, pass out in bed, then wake up and do it all over again? Are you helping others with their situations and not taking time for yourself? Have you ever thought, There must be more to life than being depleted, frustrated, and tired all the time? You are not alone.

Through the process I’ll teach you in this book, I have completely transformed my life. It’s helped me believe in my dreams again. It’s helped my mental and physical health as well. It gets me excited to keep learning more about myself, what my passions are, and how to achieve them. My outlook on life and what is important to me is now fueling me forward. I have a clear vision of what I want and what I don’t want, what works for me and what doesn’t. I have watched not only myself change, but others as well, who are implementing their own day of hope. I am confident it will do the same for you.

Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness.

—Desmond Tutu

There are 365 days in a year, and it is worth the time and effort to take at least twelve for yourself. You might even end up taking more days each month, once you see how even one day can transform you to become the better version of yourself that you have buried deep inside.

There are a lot of popular self-help books that can help you change your life. I like to think of this book as one more tool to help you find and achieve more time for the things that make you special. There’s nothing wrong with that; I firmly believe that people get a great benefit from many sources once they commit to the need for change. Incorporate what works for you regardless of the source or number of sources. This works for me and many others who have incorporated a day of hope in their lives—and it’s a good one with a fun twist.

What Is a Day of Hope?

A day of hope is one day, or a full twenty-four hours, for you. Yes, just you. A day to do whatever you want, whenever you want, and however you want. On this one day, you get to choose everything. You don’t have to worry about what anyone else wants or what anyone else thinks you should do. You have one full day to fuel up on what you want and need. It may not sound like a lot at first, but it’s likely more than you already get!

There are 365 days in a year, and right now you are only choosing twelve. You can put a lot of thought into it, or none at all. You just need one day a month to spend doing what you want to do and what fuels your fire, even if you do not know what it is yet. It will transform your life and fill it with hope and love for yourself. It will give you the tools to be the best person you know and want to be.

You are most likely thinking, It cannot be that simple. There is no way one day a month will transform my life!

To you I say, Yes, it can! If you give it a try, you can get different results in life. Keep reading!

What moved me to write this book was explaining this great idea all the time. My family, friends, and coworkers kept asking for more details, which excited me. Even people I did not know would ask me how my day was going, and I would tell them about my day of hope. I know by writing this book I will be able to give others a sense of hope in their lives and help them find a path forward using my example. This will not only change their lives but also the lives of others.

In the chapters ahead, I will explain how the idea became a reality and now a powerful movement. You will learn how easy it is to get started and why you are worth the time. I will provide you with lots of helpful tips, tricks, and ideas along the way. I will coach you through a few roadblocks and enable you to tackle them when they show up. I will share what I have experienced, provide some examples from others using the idea, and show some of our successes.

Are you ready to change things up and become the real rock star I know is inside of you somewhere? I am talking to you. The real you is still in there, just waiting for your forgotten hope to be remembered.

Getting Started

Your special day of hope each month can be any day. In this book, you will meet many people from my life who now give themselves a day of hope each month as well. Most of them find using their favorite number works best, as it’s easy to remember. I chose my favorite number, which is thirteen. What if your favorite number is higher than the number on a calendar? I have a solution one of my friends uses. Her favorite number is forty-four, so she divided it by two. Her day of hope is the twenty-second of each month. You can divide it by three or four if you need to; where there is a will, there is a way. My friend Idgie does something when there is a full moon each month. My sister Sally does the last Friday of each month. My granddaughter, who is six, says her favorite number is infinity, so we turn the infinity sign on its side, and she does the number eight.

Some people do it on the first Monday of each month, as they find it’s a great way to squash the dreaded Monday blues and kick the month off on a positive note. Another friend does something on the first of each month to make the thought of paying rent a little easier to handle. She used to dread the first of the month, but now she looks forward to it. My friend Sunny does self-care on Sundays, when she takes a few hours each Sunday to take care of herself. She gifts herself time alone and treats her body with facemasks, foot treatments, hair care, and so on. It might only be a few hours each Sunday, but it adds up to her one day, or twenty-four hours, each month. Maybe you just want to choose one day a month on a different day each month, so you have the freedom to change it up. Get creative—after all, it’s your day! You are the one making the rules. Choose whatever works for you so long as you pick one day a month.

There is an acronym I use when teaching about the day of hope and how to incorporate it in your life. We will use this acronym throughout the book.

• Happy—Figure out the items and things that bring you joy and make you happy while doing them.

• Open—Be open in all aspects: open to possibilities, open to dreaming big, open to trying new things, and even open to barriers and obstacles and breaking through them.

• Passion—What are you passionate about and how do you get there? What are your life goals and dreams? What are you willing to do to keep your passion in the forefront and not the rearview mirror?

• Empower—Empower yourself to love yourself, love your life, and take back control.

Highway of Hope

Throughout the book, I will use the analogy of a highway. Think about when you are driving down a highway and you can’t see where the road goes. You can’t see more than two hundred feet in front of you. You may not see where your interchange is or where the road leads. You have hope and a little faith to know the road is there, and you just keep driving. You don’t second-guess yourself or talk yourself out of it; you just keep driving. If the GPS says you are on the right road, you must be right,