“What is to give light must endure burning" - Victor Frankl
Hope is a common word in our vernacular: “I hope you have a nice vacation.”, “I hope you feel better.” We use this word so often that its meaning has been diluted. Over the years hope has gotten a bad rap as it is associated with blissful ignorance and wishful thinking. Some are concerned that it takes our attention away from the present moment and creates an unhealthy attachment to personal desires. It’s unfortunate that hope has been minimized as it can have a profound influence in our lives. Decades of research suggests that hope, more than skill, talent, and ability, is the essential spark that fuels our ability to create a positive future. Simply put, hope matters, and increasingly the evidence shows it matters more than we realize.
What, then, is hope? Hope is the belief that things can change and can do so for the better. Hope reminds us of the impermanence of life. No matter how uncertain things appear, circumstances will change, and in doing so have the potential to evolve into something better. Possibilities always exist. Hope helps us to imagine these possibilities and craft a vision of our best future. This vision generates the energy needed to push through negative events, creating an upward spiral of growth and renewal. Hope sustains us. It is the engine that drives us to tap into our capabilities and creativity so that we can expect the best from the future and work hard to achieve it.
Hope is unique in that it grows out of the muck of despair. When things are going your way, there is little you need to hope for. Hope appears when our circumstances are dire or there is considerable uncertainty—those moments when we are teetering on the edge of hopelessness. When faced with challenges, our tendency is to shift into problem solving as we try to identify, analyze, and fix what is wrong. At best, this root cause analysis will only correct the situation at hand, providing a temporary reprieve until the next crisis comes along. At worst it drops us into a negative spiral in which attempting to solve one problem leads to finding more things to fix. Problem solving alone lacks sufficient force to transform our trajectory. It gets us stuck in a rut of focusing on weaknesses. Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, stated that the greatest and most important problems in our lives are frequently never really solved. Instead, they fade out of our awareness when some higher or wider interest appears on our horizon. A compelling vision has the power to shift energy whereby insoluble problems lose their urgency. Herein lies the power of hope. It widens our view and helps us to rise above problems so we can move forward toward building a better future.
Does this appreciative view of challenges suggest we ignore problems? Should we focus our energy exclusively on our dreams or passions while believing that, in doing so, problems will simply fade away? This is the popular message in our culture. We are told that anything is possible if you just lean in and follow your dreams. This message, although encouraging, is not hope. It borders on wishful thinking. Problems should be identified and addressed to be sure we can get where we want to go. Hope doesn’t ignore problems; it lives side by side in the muck with challenges and uncertainty. Hope asks us to broaden our horizons, to make space in our consciousness so that we can simultaneously imagine possibilities while embracing potential obstacles. It energizes us to build a future that is more compelling than the adversities we face. Hope inspires a clear vision of who we are at our best, with a full and thoughtful understanding of the obstacles that must be overcome, using the strengths and skills we need to make this future a reality. Focus on problems and you’ll get problems. With hope, we focus on possibilities so that we generate more possibilities.
Hope is not passive. It takes an open mind, creativity, and a strong will to make a vision come to life. We need motivation to keep hope alive. Let’s use all the muck of 2020 to harvest hope for a brighter and better 2021!
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