“Hope is like the sun which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.”
~ Samuel Smiles
Trying to decide on a subject for our first blog was a challenge. Our impulse was to share everything we know and want you to know about coaching all at once. We quickly put that impractical idea aside and landed on the subject of “Hope.” As coaches, and particularly as transformational coaches, we offer hope to every coach and client. The hope that you will overcome obstacles, the hope that you will come to know yourself at a deeper level and realize your goals, and the hope for all humanity to enjoy a healthy, fulfilling life.
If you are a coach, we know that you too bring hope to all of your clients and we congratulate you for that. In challenging times, to hold hope in one’s heart and encourage it in others, is a powerful demonstration of your commitment to emerge from these challenges, a better version of yourself.
What is hope?
According to the dictionary, hope is “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.” Hope sees the potential in a situation but it does more than that. Take a look at these synonyms for hope taken from the same dictionary: “aspiration, desire, wish, expectation, ambition, aim, plan, dream, daydream.”
Hope isn’t some warm fluffy bit of happiness, nor is it a Pollyanna dose of enthusiasm, though it might contain both emotions. Instead, hope is a goal that includes the desire to achieve it and the feeling that you can.
Hope is necessary to live. Without it, we not only stagnate, but we also lose our will to live entirely. Hope matters.
Why Does Hope Matter?
Hope gets caught up in the interconnectedness of things. We need hope to realize our dreams, and likewise our communities need hope to thrive. Hope clarifies what we live for, and what we fight for.
Mary was recently hospitalized and during her stay tested positive for COVID-19. Immediately, she was put into isolation and the prospect of a lengthy hospital stay was a real possibility. Mary loves to write, and she knew that writing would help her cope with the reason she was in the hospital in the first place and now with COVID-19. She had neither pen nor paper. No personal items were allowed to be brought in from home, so her journal was out of the question.
At one point, her nurse asked if she could get her anything; water or an extra blanket? Mary said she wished for something to write on. A few hours later, her nurse returned with a journal that she had fashioned out of copy paper. Mary could hardly express the extent of her gratitude at the gesture. She had her journal; she could write and write and write, and with every word she wrote, she felt hope surge; she would get well and return to the life she loves. And so she did.
Hope generates creativity. Without hope we wouldn’t go hunting for out-of-the-box solutions to our problems, nor would we spend time trying to find new ways to do things.
As we were developing The Passionate Coach, our vision for the business and our hope that it would come to fruition required us to get very creative, especially because we want to over-deliver on every promise we make to you. You can probably recall numerous ways in which your creativity was ignited when you hoped something you wanted would materialize.
Hope drives us to work. Without hope, there is little chance a project will get done. Hope tells us to get to work and pushes us to keep going despite roadblocks and challenges that arise. Hope helps us push through our fears and boosts our courage.
Hope pushes us past failure. With hope, we can see our setbacks as opportunities to learn and grow.Hope ignites our problem-solving abilities, so we understand the better way to do things through experimentation and persistence.
Hope encourages us to look toward the future. More than that, it helps us let go of the past so we can welcome a bright future with open arms.Hope enables us to imagine a more desirable outcome, and then shows us the way to get there.
The best part about hope? It’s contagious. If you go out into the world full of hope and enthusiasm, you can be sure to find hope reflected back to you by those around you, by those who have learned how to hope because you first showed them the way.
If you are a coach or thinking about becoming a coach, creating a sense of hope for your clients is invaluable. Life can be… no, life is challenging. Clients often look for a coach when they are at a challenging point in their lives. As you practice the principles of transformational coaching, a natural outcome is hope: the ability to help others examine who they are and emerge with new ways to achieve their goals and create an optimistic outlook filled with happiness.