Blog

What’s Hope Got to Do With It?

You know that feeling you get when you’re trying to accomplish something that hasn’t happened yet, and you’re surrounded by glaring indications—either from other people or other events—that you’re never gonna make it?
 
When the task feels so overwhelming that you start to doubt you can ever pull it off when so much is going against you?
 
I know. It feels so heavy.
 
It feels like such a no-brainer to: Give Up. Let it go. Walk away.
 
That is so totally NORMAL. And yet…
 
Here’s the truly crazy thing:
It is ALWAYS darkest just before the dawn.
 
Over and over again, great things are accomplished by those who resist the urge to quit when their circumstances are the most dire.
 
So how do they hold on?
 
They hold on because they choose to HOPE.
 
The 411
 
So what the heck is Hope, really?
  • The dictionary will tell you that it means “to desire with expectation of obtainment or fulfillment” and “to expect with confidence: to trust.”
     
  • The ancient Greeks gave us the immortal idea of the immense power of holding on to Hope in the story of Pandora’s Box.
     
  • My personal Hope Superhero, Viktor Frankl, gave the world the idea of “embracing hope” as a survival strategy after he proved it through his survival of two Nazi concentration camps.
Here’s my idea about Hope
 
You always have a choice about the reality you create for yourself.
 
You can always, like Viktor Frankl did in those two Nazi concentration camps, “make a heaven of hell” just as easily as you can “make a hell of heaven” anywhere you are.
 
Maybe I’m naïve to believe in Hope.
 
OK. Maybe so.
 
AND. When it comes right down to it—neuroscience has proven that the experience of danger shuts our brains down to allow us to focus our body on our escape, while the experience of safely allows us full access to 100% of our brain.
 
When it comes right down to it, I’m always gonna vote for full access to my brain—and HOPE is my Secret weapon.
 
Another Gift of Hope
 
Hope also gives us access to humor in a way that’s simply not possible in the throes of dread or despair.
 
For those of us focused on the last 6 weeks of our US election cycle, here’s a whimsical YouTube video about Project 2025 that gives me such Hope for its demise: https://youtu.be/CvQhTbCY4xc
 
Celebrating HOPE in all the places that you need it—no matter where you are on the planet!

Leave a Reply