I was recently inspired by an article in National Geographic by Anne Lamott, whom I love. She talked about how hope keeps her going when facing adversity. With the spate of recent disasters, hunger, and hatred, it can be hard to feel very hopeful. However, it is her belief that having hope in the resilience and power of the human spirit can combine for good and make a real impact.
Hope means believing
If you do not believe things can change, they won’t. It really is that simple! Hope alone often isn’t enough, but you can’t get somewhere new without it. It helps you believe in yourself and others, and trust that the world can change for the better.
So what does this have to do with you? It reminded me that hope is essential to achieving change, whether in our lives or in the world. And as a life and executive coach, I’m all about helping clients create desired change in their lives.
In 2013 when I decided to turn my side hustle into a business, and say goodbye to a steady paycheck and benefits, I hoped that other people would understand my passion and want to pay me to share it with them. I never would have dared to try if I didn’t think it could work; hope pushed me to take the plunge.
If you do not believe things can change, they won’t. It really is that simple! And just as Brian Yaucher told you last week, hope alone often isn’t enough. But you can’t get somewhere new without it. It helps you believe in yourself and others, and trust that the world can change for the better.
Hope gets you to the other side
Let’s face it, our current world is in turmoil. A lot of the news is not good, and it is easy to get bogged down. But remember that we have survived bad things before and come out the other side. Think of all the people in your life who have faced truly terrible things and somehow managed to put their lives back together. If you are looking around your office and morale is low and sales are sagging, you will need hope to turn it around.
Hope is where we get the energy to roll up our sleeves and do the hard work of making things better. It is the first ingredient in the recipe for lasting change, big or small, at home or at work. It requires you to believe in yourself, in others, and in possibilities.
I dared to hope that I could turn my passion into a career, and with that hope and a lot of hard work I did it! When I struggled with my health and energy levels for years on end, I never gave up hope that there was a solution out there. And while it took me more than five tired years to finally figure it out, hope kept pushing me to try the next thing. I made it to the other side.
So, if you are sitting there wishing things would be different, I dare you to hope that they can be. Believe that what you want is possible. That’s a critical first step to creating the change you want in your life. And if you need help finding hope and creating change, a coach can help.
And now that you’re feeling hopeful, next week we’ll talk about the right mindset to do hard things.
