The Hope QuotientSample

Hope helps people attempt new things, motivates people to find new strength, propels people forward—even when it seems impossible. When hope takes hold, it liberates, it unleashes compassion, it encourages. Regardless of how little we utilize it, hope remains constant, undiminished, and always available. 

Hope is a state of being that can be created. It is something you can intentionally build into your life. Hope can be learned. It can grow and thrive.  

Hope is a forward-facing confidence. Maybe you’ve been in some places or gone through some years where the best view is in the rearview mirror. But hope has no hindsight. We never hope backward. We always hope forward.  

Hope connects us to our future and determines that future. We cannot last even a second without hope. Without hope, we would not walk outside or take even one step into the unseen world ahead of us. Hope is the expectation of good to come. 

Hope is not some unreliable sensation or an emotion you feel because feelings come and go. Hope is not wishing. Hope is not positive thinking. Hope is not goal-setting. Hope is not wishful thinking or blind optimism. Hope is not shorthand for some sort of Pollyanna, close-your-eyes-and-pretend-that-everything-is-fine attitude. Think of the guy who fell off the top of a twenty-story building. Halfway down, someone yelled out the window, “How are you doing?” The guy falling said, “So far, so good.”  

When I speak of hope, it is not to make you think, The universe is going to give good things to me. “The universe” doesn’t give anything to anybody. The kind of hope on which we can build our lives is a confident expectation that God has better days ahead. We get this idea directly from the Bible and what God tells me there about hope. 

Hope is not an unnecessary luxury. It is one of three essentials of life and also the one necessary ingredient to create consistent, compounding success.  

Think Up: 

Is hope alive in you?  

How can you build hope in your life today? (Read on).