Hope is last to die

Hope is last to die. The first time I heard these words, it was from my 15-year old son (then he was 12). I remember that time I wasn't in my best spirits and I made some comments that made it look like I was giving up.

"Mum hope is the last to die," he said.

Hope is not a strategy. Have you heard or even used that statement in your management or board meetings? Or when having a conversation among business people? Well, I have heard it a number of times from business leaders. Hope is not a strategy - yet it was the ONE thing that everyone needed, especially in 2020! As well, just look through history and see, at whatever level: Leaders who showed up in time of crisis and shared messages of hope or acted in ways to give people hope stood out.

Recently I listened to a CEO of a large enterprise narrate his experience, how 2020 had started on a high note and they were looking forward to great things.

“When the pandemic hit, things took a U-turn: we lost some of our staff to the disease, had to go through huge salary and job cuts and everything else that followed.”

As the CEO, he narrated how one of the important things they did, as an organization was to hope and pray that things got better! With the pandemic getting worse and wounding the economic and business situation day by day, they hoped and they prayed!

On a more personal note, I never imagined a time when we would have to mourn the lives of loved ones over the phone. We couldn’t travel to bury our friends or loved ones in some cases, we couldn’t visit those who fell ill irrespective what they suffered from. What a tragedy! We watched the situation unfold, we cried, we HOPED and we prayed.

Businesses closed down, Friends and colleagues lost their jobs, others lost their homes, relationships were destroyed, sadly others lost Hope. Yet in all these as humans we must find reasons to be grateful, to look up and move forward. That you have survived thus far; that you are alive; that you were ill and got better; that you are breathing now, there is hope – because hope is last to die.

We must hope because with hope comes the motivation to take action. Whether that action is getting out of bed, taking a shower, applying for that job, asking for help, penning those ideas, whatever it is take the first step, give it a try - it will get easier.

“There are always flowers for those who wish to see them” Henri Matisse

Musings of a Coach

Emily Kamunde-Osoro