GOT HOPE?

Always have hope! Hope is like a tiny battery deep inside you that must not fail. If it fails, you fail.

If you have hope, your system is activated to action.  With hope, you may try, work, invent and explore new ideas. You have a burden lifted into your being to discover new unknowns.  Without hope, you languish in a valley of inaction. Hope, like love, is fragile, easily breakable at first.  As well, hope can carry through the most difficult times.

SPORTS. One manifestation of this is with sports teams.  When a team gives up on itself and loses hope, its fans also give up. Their supreme effort to win is dissolved. The conversation turns to next season and new player acquisitions. In European leagues, relegation is assumed, resulting in players looking to change teams. The entire team package is lost until it finds hope once again.

CITIES. The city that loses hope, dissembles. It’s laws are not enforced; homelessness rises; city legislatures lose focus toward meaningless abstractions; businesses leave; productive people leave. Few cities come back from the despair of hopelessness.

PEOPLE. When a person loses hope, they are paralyzed to action. Nothing works; nothing can work; nothing will work. Attempts are canceled. The hopeless dwell in a region of inaction and despair. 

COUNTRIES. When a country loses hope, crime moves in; bribery is common and constant; infrastructure languishes; lawmakers posture while doing nothing; national esteem is diminished; dark clouds permeate the country’s mood.  This country is vulnerable to attack. 

Hope activates achievement. It permits success; it diminishes excuses; it opens you to exploration; it initiates new life and enlivens current life. Your morning is brighter and your coffee tastes better.

An interesting question is this.  If I lose hope, how do I get it back?  Losing hope has a cumulative effect. You can lose it but often it comes back naturally, barring recurring misfortune. Faith in yourself is crucial.  However, each time you lose hope, its return comes slower. How many times can I lose it, you may ask? Personal strength is a factor.  Most of us can lose hope, temporarily, maybe six or ten times, and recover. After that, recovery is problematic. Losing hope multiple times, unlike many other misfortunes, often does not make one stronger.

Many common aphorisms refer to NOT losing hope by way of setbacks.

• ·  Hang in there.
• · Don’t give up.
• · Tomorrow is another day.
• · Try, try, try again.
• ·  Have faith.
• ·  Pray.
• ·  Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.

If you have an enemy, their most potent attack against you would be to cause you to lose hope.