Hope: Free, Available, And Yours By Choice

The one thing that creates new possibilities and a better life.

Annelie’s copy of a 2025 calendar, images by artist Björg Thorhallsdottir,
printed in Norway, and gifted to me by Maje, my old time Norwegian friend.

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness.”
— Desmond Tutu

Feeling hopeless is like crawling in the mud with no place to go. Most of us have had at least one transient experience with that. Caused by internal or external stimuli, the reason doesn’t matter much. A hopeless state of mood is devastating, sad, and lack motivation to act towards most goals.

Hope is an optimistic state of mind, based on expectations that things will work out, despite adversity and uncertainty. Hope is a deep human emotion that allows us to overcome unbearable conditions by using our thoughts to create better futuristic outcomes.

Viktor Frankl, the survivor of Holocaust and author of Man’s Search for Meaning, is a remarkable example of what a man can do by focusing his mind on hope. From living through the horrors of concentration camp, hope inspired him to spend his life, helping others to develop meaning in life. Hope also contribute to a better mindset when we face health crises.

According to this article from Harvard Health Publishing, hope can be a powerful protector against the dread of outcome from a chronic or threatening disease. The benefits of hope also extend into later life as we face challenges due to aging.

This I experienced first, working as a nurse in critical care. Patients with hope had a better mindset and were more focused on recovery than patients without hope.

The characteristics of hope

Besides optimism, a positive outlook on future possibilities, hope also include resilience, inspiration, and faith in a potential. Potential is a spark of light in a dark room. A sense of purpose is often embedded in optimism and a strong belief that things will work out. How else would Thomas Edison survive his 1000 missteps before he finally created the light bulb?

A couple of days ago I received a calendar for 2025. My girlfriend, Maje in Norway, sent me a calendar with artwork from Björg Thorhallsdottir. Here you see two of the images from the calendar. Both are hope-provoking. Both images look to the future year with excitement and uncertainty. Believing positive experiences are on the way provides a sense of hope.

Why Hope is important

Don’t kid yourself, being human is often hard, messy, and lonely. We know this to be true. But hope makes everything better. A mindset with hope vs a mindset of hopelessness wins every time. Who wants to crawl in the mud with no place to go?

Hope makes life better and it makes us better humans. Here are three ways that hope can change our life and repair a mind of despair.

• Hope improves our emotional well-being by reducing feelings of despair and anxiety. Hope adds light and opens the road to new possibilities.
• Everyone has a dream. Unless we act towards the dream, the dream blows in the wind. Hope motivates us to take action steps towards what we want. This is how dreams turn into goals.
• Hope strengthens our connection to other humans. By feeling more connected to others, hope foster a sense of belonging. We are not alone, we are part of a whole; the Universe.

We have the potential to go far, but to go far, we must first start.

“I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the Universe.”

— Dalai Lama

Some are more hopeful than others. Pessimism and optimism rule our personalities. I belong to the latter group, and have been called Pollyanna more than once.

Because I have crawled in the mud, like everyone else, I know how to develop a hopeful mindset. At first, it is hard. Your mind may not be used to hope and optimism. It may rather shout out, “Screw that”. But you have to start before changes can take place, and our star becomes visible.

If we don’t make a change this year, 2025 will be the same as 2024

Carrying goals and dreams from one year to another is common. But changes need action and action needs hope. Here is how we start.

1. Take a moment to decide what you want to be, do, and have in the coming new year. Define your short and long-term goals. What makes them meaningful? Keep it simple and develop three action steps that work for you. The steps must be doable for you.
2. While you are sitting there, practice some gratitude for the good in your life. This alone is the most hopeful practice you can develop. It is an instant awakening to feeling blessed. Things can always be worse.
3. What are your personal strong attributes? Focus on that. Appreciate your strengths and use them to leverage challenges that are sure to arise. Develop a can-do attitude. Hope is born out of this.
4. Use your strengths to help someone who needs help. Helping others to get what they want is the best way to elevate a pessimistic mindset to a hopeful mindset.
5. Visualize the new year. Visualize your new and better future. See and feel yourself as it has happened already. Meet your future self and help her out; one step, one day, and one challenge at the time.
6. Be consistent. The best person to motivate you is YOU. The more you do something, the more your mindset becomes hopeful. This is internal motivation because by doing, you create hope to do more.

Developing a hopeful mindset is a wonderful way towards living a full and meaningful life. The older we get, the more we need hope.

Happy New Year to my fellow Medium writers and readers. Happy New Year to family, friends, and everyone, everywhere.

Together, let us bring hope and light into the coming year, for ourselves and others. More than ever, our beautiful world needs hope. Join me; choose hope and bright new possibilities. We got this.

Thank you.

. . .

🇳🇴Annelie Holmene Pelaez believes that everyone has an attribute to share with others. Promoting cardiovascular health and helping adults over age 65 is her contribution. When we don’t let age define us, but rather empower us to grow, we discover health and happiness are byproducts of who we are.

Annelie is the author of the book, Say Yes to A Better Life, available at Amazon.

Sign up for our newsletter and a free PDF designed specifically for Boomer Girls.

Some of the links on this website are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase through these links, at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products and services that I believe in and think will add value to my readers. Your support by using these links helps to keep the site running and allows me to continue offering helpful content.