Discover Why Hope is Power

by LaVerne H. Collins, PhD, LPC, LCMHC, NCC

One of the most impactful feelings you can ever experience is hope. Hope is activated when we center our expectations on something. In these unprecedented times, it is easy to become disheartened.  But there’s power in hope!

Here are seven considerations for cultivating hope in your life:

1.      Hope plants a seed. Hope can germinate into a whole new existence. In life, it is easy to expect nothing greater tomorrow than you experienced yesterday. Hope gives you the capacity to expect something different! Your life’s journey can be enhanced simply by having hope, because it allows you to experience positive expectation.

2.      Hope begins with honesty.  In order to feel hopeful, honesty is required. We’ve all experienced times when we were fooling ourselves about something, such as a relationship or work situation. But to have hope, we’re forced to be honest about what we’ve done to create or worsen the challenge. Only if you tell yourself the truth about a trying situation can you proceed ahead and experience hope.

3.      Hope produces a “can do” mindset. For example, if you want your relationship to be better, you can draw upon the hope within you. That desire to want a deepened, more connected partnership is rooted in a hope that you can put the relationship back on track. The next step is then to ask yourself, “What can I do to help the relationship grow?” Hope cultivates a personal sense of responsibility and ownership. Only then do you have the power to convince yourself that you can truly affect a change in your own life.

4.      Hope often leads you to the answer. When you’re clueless about how to resolve a difficult issue, you find yourself hoping the issue will be solved somehow. Your thoughts begin to meander through all the ins and outs of the situation. Before you know it, you’ve hit on something that helps you figure out a solution.

5.      Hope cultivates your imagination. Creativity and imagination are necessary when you’re hoping for something to grow or change in a positive way. You stretch yourself by considering options you had not considered before.

6.      Hope enhances your personal commitment to the issue at hand. When you’ve thought enough about a vexing challenge, you’re likely committed to overcoming that challenge. Personal commitment sets you up to sharpen your focus and find a way to create the end result you desire.

7.      Hope allows you to accept and forgive others. Many times, the path you seek can only be paved by your complete acceptance of others and your ability to forgive them. We will all be exposed to those who annoy or bewilder us. And unfortunately, we will be hurt by the actions and words of others at some point or another. However, having hope encourages us to move past these positions of powerlessness and discover the true strength of our character. When we truly know the power of God’s acceptance and forgiveness, we can more easily accept and forgive others.