The Importance and Magic of Hope

Do not forget the importance of hope. Hope lifts a person up; it makes a person feel that he or she can accomplish what is needed and can do what needs to be done in the face of what may be near- insurmountable obstacles. People endure immense suffering and hardship; unfortunately a person may give up when a word of encouragement, something to give hope, might embolden him or her to not give up. In the extreme case, it could be the difference between giving up and pushing through, surviving, and even succeeding.

The world is full of examples of those who had hope or were given hope, and from great depths of despair or difficulties emerged and succeeded. There are famous examples, and there are likely to be millions of other unsung stories of hope triumphant. A destitute down-on-his-luck actor living at the YMCA in New York in 1912 could have given up hope and the world would never had known Dale Carnegie (then Dale Carnegay), author of How to Win Friends and Influence People. When Saul Bellow’s life was turned upside down by his wife divorcing him (which he wrote about in his famous Herzog), he could have resigned from his life of writing, never fought back and never have claimed his Nobel Prize in literature. And what of the Holocaust survivors who marched out of Europe not knowing a word of English or Hebrew and made a successful life in America or Israel – all because they had hope.

So, in this era of a deep economic recession when colleagues, relatives, and friends are being laid off, do not avoid them. Reach out to them with a word of encouragement. Let them know their skills are excellent; that they were laid off for economic reasons, and that if they soldier on and not retreat they will find a new job. I gave such a word of encouragement to a colleague who was laid off recently, and he told me that my simple gesture brought him out of a spell of depression about his job loss, gave him hope that he could find new employment, and he actually found a new job from Craigslist within one month of being laid off. He called me from his new job and thanked me – and all I did was offer hope; it cost me no more than a five minute talk with my friend, but it changed his life for the better.

Do you know someone going through difficult times: a divorce, job loss, a parent with Alzheimer’s? Reach out to him or her and offer them a word of encouragement. Remind them of their strengths and find words of hope for them. Your gesture will be warmly welcomed and richly rewarded – you may better that person’s life by giving them hope. You may later see them happy and successful because you turned their life around with a few simple words of hope. Those words can work miracles – that is the importance of hope. Give it freely, and the more of it you will have.