What is Hope?
As the days grow longer, and we start to enjoy some sunshine and warmer days, I always feel a sense of hopefulness at this time of year.
Spring is often seen as a time for hope and new beginnings - symbolising rebirth and renewal as nature emerges from the winter months.
It's a season that inspires optimism and encourages embracing change and fresh starts.
It’s a perfect time to think about our own intentions or goals for the year ahead and dust off the cobwebs on any plans we side-lined during the past few months.
So, for my latest series of blogs, I want to explore deeper this word ‘Hope.’
Martin Luther King Jnr, an American Baptist minister, activist, and political philosopher, once famously said: “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
But what exactly does ‘hope’ mean?
We recognise hope when we feel it and when we need it, but it’s hard to define and describe.
The English Cambridge Dictionary explains it as ‘to want something to happen or to be true and usually have a good reason to think that it might.’
Hope is all about imagining and reaching for a better future for ourselves - both an emotion and a way of thinking. We experience it in our brain, but it comes from somewhere or someone outside ourselves.
Hopeful people and teams find it easier to imagine options and possibilities, which enables improved decision making. Photo Chris Burgett Unsplash
Hope is crucial in times of uncertainty, and in dealing with adversity - and unfortunately there’s currently plenty of that in the world!
Hope isn’t optimism, which is a belief that everything will work out.
Instead, it’s much more active - a feeling and a mindset you must work at to achieve your goals, despite trying and extenuating circumstances.
I believe the following checklist quite succinctly sums up the meaning of hope:
Hope is a powerful feeling driving us to believe in a better future and maintain a positive attitude in the face of difficulties
Hope is a confidence that things can improve – that there’s a possibility of achieving our dreams and overcoming challenges.
Hope gives us strength and motivation to persevere, even in times of adversity. It helps us maintain faith in ourselves and in others to seek solutions and visualise a brighter horizon.
·Hope connects us with the possibility of a tomorrow full of opportunities and fulfilment.
Look out for the next articles in this series – “How to build hope in the workplace,” “The importance of hope in the workplace,” and “The benefits of hope in the workplace.”
If you need further information about these approaches, or any other resilience topic, please contact russell@theresiliencecoach.co.uk.