Paul Simard
Jul 25, 2017 · 5 min read

When all else fails…

(this post was originally posted on May 23, 2016)

It was a rough day. Again.

The project took a step backwards. Again.

Your boss blew a gasket. Again.

Your colleague got the promotion. Yet again.

The kids weren’t listening. Again.

The spouse didn’t quite see things our way. Once again.

You are questioning yourself and your abilities. Again.

And if you happen to be challenged with a good dose of negativity running through your personality, there is no doubt in your mind that the world is actually out to get you, and it is collapsing all around you.

We all feel this at some point. Some days, we feel all of them. None of us are immune. The question is, are you equipped for the long haul? Do you have what it takes not to survive, but to thrive?

You bet I am. I am “optimistic”! And yes, a strong sense of optimism can help get people over bumps in the road and to navigate tough situations. But optimism also doesn’t do as well under a concerted “beating”. And over time, after repeated hits, optimism is just not equipped to survive.

So, we throw in some resilience — that should do it, right? Resilience means tough, able to survive difficult circumstances. Well, yes, but resilience will only ensure you “tough out” the difficult times. If we need to be constantly resilient, we get worn down; our psyche can only maintain this state for so long.

I offer you instead a bit of a curveball in the form of…Hope.

I never expected this to be something I feel so strongly about. But without question, it is Hope, instilled in me by family, friends and mentors over the years, that is at the foundation of who I am. And from my professional life to my personal one, I now realize that I rely on it almost every day. And only rarely can I say that I have ever even felt it fade, slightly, for a moment. Every single time, a sliver of light would appear, Hope would reappear and strength returns.

And Hope, I realize, is not something I just “have”, it is something that was fostered, and nourished, by myself and, importantly, others.

But how does Hope work? How does it help us when our optimism has faded, and our resilience has weakened? And how can we make it our own foundation?

Let’s start by getting a sense of what hope is.

Wikipedia defines hope as “an optimistic attitude of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes related to events and circumstances in one’s life or the world at large”. It goes on to say that, as a verb, its definitions include: “expect with confidence” and “to cherish a desire with anticipation”.

In an article published in Psychological Reports in 1997, a paper written jointly by professors from Keene State College and the University of New Hampshire, we learn that Hope is “rooted in early trust experiences and influenced by external and collaborative control beliefs.”

So, how does hope work, and why is it so important?

Unlike optimism, Hope is far less vulnerable to shock or bad news. In difficult times, the ability to see pathways or to maintain staying power is distinctive of hope. We might become less optimistic in the face of a challenge, but if we are equipped with an equal amount of hope, our ability to find alternative pathways becomes much more probable, and the resultant boost will be far greater as we develop this newfound solution further still.

It is not optimism that allows us to see blockages as challenges and learning solutions. Hope does.

Hope can also have a major impact on our health, and our ability to heal, even under the darkest of prognoses.

In a 2013 CNN post by Amanda Enayati titled How hope can help you heal, we learn that “Belief and expectation — the key elements of hope — can block pain by releasing the brain’s endorphins and enkephalins, mimicking the effects of morphine.” They have also found that, in some cases, hope can actually have effects on the “physiological processes like respiration, circulation and more function.” All of which, as any doctor will tell you, or important not in the healing process, but in the maintenance of health, as well.

Hope might actually be an important part of a healthy lifestyle. If Hope gets us through health challenges, imagine what Hope as a foundation does for us when we are, in fact, healthy?

And in all manner of businesses, a leader’s ability to weave the elements of hope throughout the organization could determine how the company will fare in difficult, uncertain or rapidly changing times. In a blog post from October 2012, Deborah Mills-Scofield made the case that hope is, in fact, a strategy.

By setting the basis for the future in hope, we recognize the reality that failure happens, and that success is not assured. When you use hope as a strategy, you take a look at what has worked in the past, find out why, and push ahead to create the right environment for success to be achieved. And when you are working with Hope, you also realize that the outcome you thought defined success might, in actually, be a moving target.

So, how do I know it works? Because when I think about each aspect of my life, it is hope, not optimism, which is forever present. Hope drives the strategy for our programs and projects on our team. Hope is what drives me to volunteer as much time as I can to people and organizations that feel I can help. Hope is what I see in the future of Canada under our new government. On the flipside, the absence of hope is what is creating the political nightmare for our friends to the south. Neither Hilary nor the Donald offer any sense of hope. One is full of fear and anger, the other is the epitome of the political machine.
And Hope is what drives every decision I make, every dream I foster, for my daughters, my family. It provides me with the energy to do all I can to make their future one they will thrive in. My hope for their futures.

Hope: it is filled with opportunity and potential. Hope allows us to believe, to have faith, to want for better no matter what. That is something that optimism alone cannot allow us to.

This short blog could have been much longer, with deeper dives into the research and examples of how to build “hope” into your organization. To read more, you can read on at the following links which have also been used as reference in writing this article:

1) A Prospective Study of Hope, Optimism, and Health
http://www.gainhope.com/hope/hopehealth.pdf

2) How Hope Can Help You Heal
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/11/health/hope-healing-enayati/

3) Hope is a strategy (well, sort of)
https://hbr.org/2012/10/hope-is-a-strategy-well-sort-o

4) My Escape from North Korea (a great story about the power of hope)
http://www.ted.com/talks/hyeonseo_lee_my_escape_from_north_korea?language=en

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