Have a Little Hope…
I once lost hope in life. It was the result of a culmination of several devastating experiences that I had to endure. Yet, it was a period in my life that I would never want to take back. It helped me to realize just how much we ponder when we fail, and just how much those situations build a rock-solid foundation for success in the future.
And I’m not alone in the loss of hope. So many of us lose hope from time to time. When we’re pushing towards a goal and we hit a brick wall, we tend to lose sight of the bigger picture and seemingly lose all hope. But hope is defined as the expectation of good things to come. It’s steeped in a deeper belief and faith that things tend to work themselves out in the long run.
But what happens when you do lose hope in life?
What happens when your whole world collapses all around you?
Things can and will go wrong in life…
Of course, so many things can and do go wrong in life. But, life isn’t and shouldn’t be about us being completely decimated during times of catastrophic failure and pain in life; life is about how we choose to react to things and what we decide to focus on. When we focus on the negative, we get negative. Like attracts like. And, when we focus on the positive, we reap positivity.
How to avoid losing hope…
Whether you’ve lost hope or you’re trying to avoid the loss of hope, there are certainly ways to bounce back from potentially catastrophic failures in your life that may lead you into a deep, dark, downward spiral.
#1 – Reassess the Situation
Sometimes, in order to avoid losing hope, it takes a reassessment of the situation. Although we might think we wanted a certain thing in life, if something prevents us from getting it, we tend to react in one of two ways. Either we give up and throw our hands in the air in silent resignation or we push through the hurt and the pain until we get what we want. However, not all of us can keep up the good fight all the time, and it’s easy to get discouraged.
So, sometimes we need to reassess the situation.
We need to see if that’s something we really wanted that badly in life. Because, when we set goals or we have some hope or dream that we’re driving towards, we have to ensure that we addressed the three W’s of goal setting: What, Why, and When. If we didn’t have a strong enough reason why we wanted to achieve something, then we might have subconsciously given up on that goal long before we consciously realized it.
Go back and reassess the situation.
Did you really want it that badly? If you did or you do, then what can you do towards the attainment of it?
Sometimes, what we don’t realize is that, we might fail to achieve something in order to open ourselves up to something even greater. So, be sure to look at the situation from a different light. You might end up seeing something you didn’t see before, even if it hurts right now.
#2 – Harbor Gratitude
The second way that you can avoid losing hope in life is to harbor gratitude. All too often, we look to those in life that have more than us rather than less than us. But, did you know that five children die every minute around the world due to starvation and hunger-related illnesses.
It’s easy to look to those with more, but far harder to look to those with less.
Our society is very fixated on those with more, but we have to retrain ourselves to look to those with less rather than more. It’s something that can help to realign us with our hopes and our dreams in life. Even if we’ve failed at something or we’ve nearly lost all hope, when we can take things in perspective, we can begin to appreciate life on a far greater level.
#3 – Be Honest with Yourself
One of the best ways to avoid losing hope in a situation is to always be honest with yourself. No matter what it is that you hope or dream for in life, as long as you’re honest with yourself, you can avoid a catastrophic situation should whatever you hope for end failing on you. When you’re honest along the way, you’re not lying to yourself about the severity of a situation.
Honesty breeds awareness, which in turn breeds adjusting your approach…
When you can change your approach along the way, you can move towards your goals much quicker because you won’t find yourself surprised suddenly if things don’t end up working out. You can modify the way you tackle a situation to best deal with it. Always be honest in all situations… it will breed a much happier and healthier path towards your goals.
#4 – Look to Others for Support
Sometimes, the best way to take stock of the positives that we can gain from a situation that might seem bleak, is through the support of others. Whether it’s friends, family members, religious denominations, or support groups, other people can help us to look at things in perspective and offer us a guiding light towards the shores of hope.
Sometimes, the sea can be choppy, but one thing to keep in mind is that, whatever it is you’re going through, others have gone through it before you.
The bigger picture can be hard to see sometimes, but through the support of others we can all find our way. Whatever doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, so keep that hope burning strong in your heart.
#5 – Have a Little Faith
No matter what you believe in: God, Allah, Buda, or the Singular Universal Oneness that binds us all, by having faith, you can learn to understand that nothing is impossible to overcome. No situation, no matter how dire or bleak, can defeat you if you don’t let it. We are all a product of the lens of focus from our mind’s eyes. So, don’t allow things to defeat you. Instead, use your situation to fuel you.
Having faith is something that comes from within. Everyone has what it takes within them to get past any situation. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and countless people have failed more times than they’ve succeeded.
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