By Steve Beseke, senior vice president at think2perform – formerly Lennick Aberman Group (Check out my resiliency e-books at http://resiliencyfirst.com).
Hope is one of those four-letter words that we should use more as we navigate through our sometimes-choppy waters of life.
Whether it is our work, health, personal relationships or maintaining self-confidence, we should never sit on our laurels and expect that good times will last.
We hope they do, but without effort and diligence our world can never stay the way we want it to be.
That’s why I think we need to connect the concept of hope to the realities of resilience. Not everything is going to be the way we want it, or stay the way we hope. That’s where our resilience of persevering, adapting and finding common ground play such an important part in our life equation.
Last year, for example, I was out for part of the year recovering from – what doctors said – was very serious and critical cervical spine surgery. The procedure went perfectly, and I recovered in much less time than typically seen. Yeah! I hoped that would take care of worrying about my neck.
This hope led me to see life’s possibilities again.
But just yesterday, I went into my neurosurgeon for a check up. He said I have healed better than anyone throughout his career, but he was concerned about another issue I’ve had since December. That is, my left (good) hand was “falling asleep” a lot and getting that tingly feeling all of us have probably had at some life points
I thought it might be a pinched nerve in my shoulder, but he wants me to get additional MRI to see if another neck portion of my spine is getting too compressed. He even wants me to get an EMG to see if I might have carpal tunnel.
I never want to think the worst, but I have to hope for the best. With my physical disability history, who knows? But if I don’t keep that word “hope” front and center, I could start spinning and letting more challenging thoughts dominate.
What does this have to do with you?
Well, I think all of you need to keep this four-letter word also in the bright light when things don’t go as you expect in your life or at work…
When you’ve had a tough day at the office, a relationship has turned in the wrong direction, or you do not believe in yourself as you should.
The adage, “Hope is eternal,” is absolutely spot on in most cases. Keeping hope next to you will allow you to see there always will be better day. Tomorrow, next Tuesday, a couple weeks from now.
Because if we lose hope, then we can’t see there is going to be a better tomorrow. And there ALWAYS will be a better day if you continue to tie hope with the resilience that has allowed you to overcome so many challenges in your life.
I’m a bit down right now because of my health, but the hope that I have always inside me allows my will and strength to overcome such moments. You can achieve the same type of success by using your strengths and not pushing aside hope as an opportunity to overcome. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but the next day or the day after that…
Your great comments about what I write gives me hope – despite my creaky body – that tomorrow will always be uniquely have more sunshine for me.
Please visit my web site for resiliency e-books, articles and videos – http://resiliencyfirst.com.
I hope you are enjoying life today!
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