Five Essentials of Hope

• How would you like everything to magically work better?
• What if you felt empowered to use every resource available to you exceptionally well?
• If you could avoid ever feeling like you are wasting your time or talent, wouldn’t you want to?
• And, wouldn’t you like to proceed to do all that is required of you with a level of engagement and conviction that draws others in, to marvel and celebrate your wins along with you?

?“Hope is having an optimistic outlook on events that have not yet happened. It is the one thing if cared for and nurtured cannot be taken away.”

Hope is a powerful positive feeling of expectation, desire, and trust that very certain things will happen in the future. It’s an emotion that allows us to have faith that better outcomes are ahead for us and that our highest dreams and aspirations will come to pass. It creates a burning impulse that all will be suitable. With hope, we become assured that the work that we do no matter how arduous will lead us forward. Why would we even try to do anything if we didn’t have hope? How could we?

The good news about hope is that each individual can and should maintain an ever-increasing reservoir of it. We take so much for granted and yet we have so much more to be optimistic and confident about. We can expect that the sun will certainly come up tomorrow. We can place our legitimate faith in the rising and the falling of the tide and we can bet on the fact that surely, we will all meet our maker someday.

My friend, hope is more than a possibility it is an expectation, that we can all anticipate and believe in. It’s a feeling that is neither frivolous nor fleeting when managed correctly.

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.” ― Bill Keane

Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

The longer I live, the more I begin to understand that the odds are stacked in my favor because I have increasingly more to contribute and a higher capacity to receive gracefully. I really can smell the roses today! I really can give someone their flowers right now, while they yet live. And, I know that there will be so many more magnificent things in store for our future because of all that has already happened for us.?We are walking talking testaments of hope. ‘We’ are all the evidence, assurance, and conviction needed for today and tomorrow! So, let’s get on with it. Life is too short not to realize our just rewards daily!

It's not just the yearning or longing that makes hope so palpable. It’s not just the love of our feelings and desires. It’s the powerful feeling of certainty that manifests our greatest hopes and dreams. It’s the knowing that there are amazing things to come for us and there is nothing that can stop it. You see, hope is something that we are sure of. And, when we are convinced that there is clear evidence that the outcomes that we wish are guaranteed, we begin to act as if we’ve already accepted the inevitable conclusion of the greatest story in our lives. The conviction to belief-based action can become almost a credo or article of faith which again will usually turn into a movement of an entire community or nation.

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The Benefits of Hope

Hope makes everything better, period! Studies show that hopeful people perform better because they know that they are not wasting time and that their contributions are meaningful, relevant, and significant. Their approach to how they use the resources (time, talent, treasure) that they enjoy is wonderful. They tend to be very careful and purposeful about what they do so that they don’t get caught up with activities that largely don’t fit into their feelings of purpose and contribution. They know and understand the importance of their greatest gifts and talents and spend more time sharpening them than they obsess about overcoming weaknesses, and when they invest money or energy in a new creative direction, they do so with the kind of committed confidence that get’s results.

They are better to be around because they tend to uplift our spirits and teach us that it’s good to have an appreciation for excellence. They help us understand that better days are ahead and that all we have to do is to continue to show up and be ready. The entire political and social atmosphere is greatly improved with their presence because they bring a positive energy that is second to none.

What we know from the bible is that the 5 elements of assurance, conviction, rejoicing, mindfulness, and patience are all essential to increase and maintain the hopefulness dynamic and anything that can be done to stimulate these most powerful emotions will be extremely useful. This along with the full faith that the creator of all things in the Universe, including hope itself, is looking out for our best interest and has only good things in store for our welfare.

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Increasing Hope

According to famed psychologist Shane Lopez , there are three important strategies that leaders can embrace to dramatically improve hope in their teams. Leaders must help people to dream, chase after exciting goals, and spend time with the most hopeful people that they know. If you want to raise your Hope GPA and that of everyone around you, you must increase your ability to set exciting vision-based goals, generate multiple pathways to meet and exceed those goals, and have the agency needed to execute any plans or directives to move forward (Snyder ).

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Transferring Hope

In the context of encouragement, it's not so difficult to see how hope can be generated and also transferred to others. We can even teach people how to do this! One of my favorite bloggers Amarvani shares that “It is important in these times to learn how we can become a source of hope for others. How can we give someone hope? If we can give people hope, we give them life because hope is all we need to survive and carry.” His article “How to give someone hope -14 human ways” was so powerful that I had to subscribe to his blog.

One of my favorites of his many suggestions is this one “be hopeful yourself!” I can’t stress enough that trying to encourage others when you are not a hopeful person will be extremely difficult if not impossible.?Mastering your ability to visualize a positive and powerful future for yourself in every role that you have currently or will have is critical.

Exercises to Nurture Hope:

1.?????The greatest example that I’ve experienced infectious faith in action is the powerful well-spoken testimony. What can you assert in writing as an exciting passionate absolute truth of your profession or calling? What interesting witness or evidence can you cite? If you believe wholeheartedly in the credibility of the claim, then so can others. There will always be doubters and naysayers, but you’ll have more supporters as long as you stick to Universal principles that are not only true but familiar to most.

2.?????Help others to see what’s important to them about what they’ve dedicated their time and talent to. If you can help them to see how to master the fundamental elements of the game (whatever they do well) so to speak, they can expect to play at a high level. They will become prospective high performers that can be easily validated by others. Everyone that takes enough time to learn the subtleties of any craft with enough intensity (ten-thousand hours!) can become among the greatest of all time.

3.?????Complete and get underway with your growth plan for the year! I can’t stress enough that you stop procrastinating on this one. The sooner you have even a rudimentary plan to share with your stakeholders the more you can energize them and all of their resources. Remember, getting others involved earlier is providing them with opportunities to engage, connect, and become of great meaning, relevance, and significance.

4.?????Consider and answer the following questions and point them to every role that you have currently. If money and time were no longer an obstacle, what would you be able to be, do, or have, in the future that you cannot currently? Can you see how even pondering this question for a few short minutes can open up tremendous possibilities? You can use this strategy in front of your daily, weekly, monthly, or annual planning sessions to begin to set goals and tasks that inspire you and help you appreciate the possibilities of hopefulness.

5.?????Anything that opens the imagination inspires hope! Go read something out of your favorite fiction genre or listen to some incredible music. I find that when I can ease up to a comfortable chair and have a nice cup of java with one of my favorite Anne Rice books, everything is right with my world, at least for those few minutes.?I try to earn and then enjoy this kind of break every day.