8 Ways Having and Instilling Hope Changes the Outcome of Your Journey
Imagine if we all had a person(s) in our life cheering us on. Would life be different? Most of us would probably agree we would be on a different path if we had constant positive support from others. There are many times in life when we have doubts and lack the confidence to take our life to different places. Think about all the role models in your life. Maybe there are many or maybe there are few. Regardless, think about what characteristics a role model has. They are responsible, trustworthy, reliable, have integrity, balance, and many other positives. Now let’s look through the lens of a role model. Positive characteristics may come easily to people but sometimes you must work on them. Growth doesn’t happen overnight. Some of the best ways to work on our personal development are commitment, practice, and repetition. We only get better with time, commitment, practice, and repetition. This is true with instilling hope in others. What does instilling hope in others give to us?
Giving hope to those around us is vital to others’ success. It’s also vital to our success to having meaningful relationships with those around us. Hope is a condition that gives us a future to look forward to. Hope empowers us to do things that we have never thought would be possible. Hope gives us peace. Giving hope alleviates stress in our lives. There are so many positive benefits of hope. Benefits that overall make us a better version of ourselves. Hope is an extremely powerful gift and giving it away can be even more powerful. Here are 5 ways to consider hope.
1 Hope gives us a future to look forward to
Without hope, we have difficulty seeing better things to come. In the absence of hope, we are often left in darker or more uncertain places. Hope helps us strategize for our future. Hope gives us a starting place to help us begin building momentum. Hope is a condition that creates opportunities for us to become successful.
2 Hope empowers us to do things we never thought were possible
Typically, when we succeed at something in our lives it’s because there once was hope that it was possible. When the condition of hope is created it produced a condition of empowerment. Empowerment is a vital component to change and personal growth. It gives us the idea and value of being in control of our destiny. Hope and empowerment allow us to complete tasks we thought were impossible.
3 Hope gives us peace and alleviates stress in our lives
Our lives are constantly full of some type of stressor. Whether it be mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, financial, or so on. Stress can carry great weight or burdens to our health. Sometimes the weight of stress takes us into a fight, flight, or freeze mode to the point it becomes overbearing. Stress can stop us from moving forward in our lives because we feel trapped and can’t find a way out. Once we can find or cultivate a little hope, we begin to alleviate some of that unwanted stress. Stress is both internal and external. With internal stress, we are typically talking about our thoughts and feelings. When we discuss external stress, we are talking about our behaviors or someone else’s behaviors. Hope can come from deep inside of us and if we can use our mental endurance to fight for ourselves and others, we can overcome stress and find peace.
4 Hope is believing in something greater than us
Typically believing in something greater than us is associated with spirituality. Spirituality is different for everyone, but it tends to be an extremely powerful fuel for those of us that can grasp the concept. There is a great humbleness that comes with believing in a higher power. Some of us had the privilege of being born into this and some of us found it later in life. Nonetheless whichever happened for you it’s a source of hope and of better things to come.
5 Hope helps us challenge our current thinking and negative beliefs.
Often time when hope isn’t present there is some irrational thought or belief in our way. Sometimes our thoughts and beliefs cloud our path. I like to use the Santa Clause analogy. When we were younger and still believed in Santa Clause, we believed that an overweight guy in a read suite came down our chimney on December 24 and left us gifts. This thinking and belief held until we gained new information. Until someone told us that this wasn’t true. Our beliefs can be changed in a matter of moments by someone in our life or by our awareness. If hope isn’t present in your life look for the beliefs that are keeping you where you’re at in that moment and find a way to challenge them. Now we understand that this is complex especially when there are so many traumas in this world, and everyone has gone through different levels of this. Keep looking at different things that work for different people. We all owe it to ourselves and to others in our lives to fight for hope.
6 Hang on to the small wins no matter how small they are
Sometimes hope comes a little bit at a time. Small wins can create momentum in our lives. A small win might be waking up on time and making it work. It might be surviving another day. It might be eating one less piece of junk food than you normally eat. Whatever it is for you specifically, since all of our battles are different. We have to be sure that we don’t discount the small stuff. Sometimes irrational beliefs take over and we justify and minimize our smaller wins. Everything in life is a profound learning experience that we can take new things, or we can toss the experience away and take nothing from it. The more we learn the better we are prepared for our future no matter how small win.
7 Seeking Clarity helps us find hope
Sometimes when we get stuck in a rut it’s hard to find a way out. One of the simplest ways to get out of any rut is to start digging or investigating what it is that we are missing. In life, there is often tension frustration anger pressure, and many more uncomfortable conditions. Clarity is about asking questions to find out the unknown. When you are feeling unwell mentally it’s vital to figure out what is missing. Asking questions and gaining more clarity on the topic will help take you to a different space in your mind. Just gaining more information can give you hope. So, if you lack hope always go back to seeking clarity. Help others go back to clarity as well. We all become trapped in cycles in our lives that take us down a path of self-destruction seeking clarity helps us exit that cycle and move on to bigger and better experiences.
8 Mindfulness will create conditions of hope
Often time we have many beliefs and thinking in our mind that is just wrong. We as humans are experts at lying to ourselves. It’s extremely important to challenge these lies and be mindful of the fact that we are wrong. Once we can be honest with ourselves then we can move forward. Self-honest can create a condition of hope. We need to be mindful of others going through bad stuff in their lives. We need to consider that we know very little about what is going on in their realities and be kind and gentle with them. Approach them with mindfulness and love nothing else.
Conclusion
Having or finding hope for ourselves and others will no doubt change the course of the future. Hope gives us something to look forward to. Hope empowers us to do things we never thought were possible. Hope will help alleviate the stressors in our lives and the lives of others. Believing in something greater than ourselves helps to cultivate a condition of hope. Hope can challenge our old negative beliefs and thoughts, and it will help us with the small wins in our lives. In every situation in our lives, it’s vital to always seek clarity and be mindful. Hope is a condition that has to be created by us and others. We need to work with each other to embrace and cultivate this profound concept.
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