Is Hope just a Goal?
No – Hope does not rest solely in goals – though goals are good.
Hope is bigger than goals. Some of you will know about SMART targets:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time Limited
Simply put: we need to make our goals within our reasonable reach and we need to be able to know when we have reached them. It’s no good saying, “I just want to be happier”. How would you ever know when you got there? It’s much more helpful to say, “By the end of the month I will be able to get out of bed when my alarm goes off and feel like I have one thing to look forward to in my day, at least 3 days in the week”.
Yet HOPE is much bigger than this; it’s about being able to see the ‘You’ that is managing life more effectively, getting more from and giving more to relationships, living the life that is the best you can live. Hope is about belief in yourself, in others, in life. Hope can withstand the knock-backs and keep pushing forward. Hope can live in desperate places.
Someone said to me recently, “It’s OK for you to talk about hope – but sometimes there is no hope”. I respectfully disagree. Have you ever spoken to someone who is expecting their death from a terminal illness? I hear the language of hope even there –
Hope that death will be without pain.
Hope to set affairs in order (financial or relational)
Hope that loved ones will manage the process of grief and recovery.
Hope of the eternal life or even from one atheistic client, “I hope that I’m not wrong about there being no God – otherwise I’m stuffed!”
You don’t have to be positive or religious to have hope – although positive people and people with faith seem to have hope by default. Hope is there to be discovered even in the darkest of places by the most unlikely people ….
Find Hope.....
