Where there is Hope.....
I'd like to start with a few questions for you:
Did you ever wonder why some people are so dedicated to their work when others aren’t?
Did you ever wonder why there aren’t more married couples at the gym, and why there are so many single people there?
Why some people live for fitness and others say they wish they had the time?
Why some people save and others live paycheck to paycheck?
Why some people can abstain from small indulgences like chocolate or ice cream and others can’t resist the temptation?
Why some people are driven to learn a new language or skill and others have never given it a thought?
Why some people are constantly trying new experiences and others are wedded to routine?
Why some people never watch TV and others find themselves glued to it for 4 hours a day?
The answer is HOPE!
Hope is the difference between these choices, decisions and behaviours.
Hope it is said to “be a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen”, it is also defined as “a feeling of trust”, and when we are hoping we are “wanting something to happen or be the case”.
When we have Hope for something better or more in life we take actions that bring us closer to that realisation. We make different choices on how we spend our time, how we spend our money and the thoughts that occupy our minds.
I say this all the time, but humans are creatures of progress, and when our hope dissipates for whatever reason, that progress seems far less achievable. When we lack Hope we give rise to discontent, irritation, frustration and unhappiness. Hope then, and its pending absence is the root cause of the mental health tsunami our society could be seriously challenged by. (This is indeed the motivation for our team to commit so much effort to build solutions that can intercept and intervene with the loss of Hope.)
Hope is the causeway through which expectations for life are formulated and when it is lost we find ourselves oscillating between our needs and wants.
When we find ourselves battling to have our basic needs met, we can get stuck bouncing between needs and wants, unable to attain hope to set new expectations. In this state, we will tend to participate in behaviours that take us further away from a better future. This is why, even if our basic needs are met, an absence of Hope can be the birthplace of instant gratification, which leads to more unhealthy eating, drinking, drug-taking, gambling or any way of temporarily escaping the distress we experience when Hope is lost.
It is also, therefore, the birthplace of obesity, chronic disease, domestic violence, crime and the division of our community, between “Haves” and “Have Nots”, Hopes and No Hopes. Whilst I am on that, the term “No-Hoper”, an offensively narcissistic term, shows no empathy toward people who have lost hope and struggle to bring it into their lives. This is a time for compassion, not judgement.
Even amongst the most selfish of us, the simple fact remains that when a community loses Hope, the economic opportunities diminish, innovation dies, and a halt in progress is experienced by all, “Haves” and “Have-Nots” alike.
In economic downturns of any magnitude, the odds for opportunity blow-out and the chances for choice and change are significantly reduced. This slows us down as a collective and brings some of us to a grinding halt, this is where people lose hope, and the impacts on human behaviour, health and mental well being can be staggering unless we choose to consciously address it.
We have already seen the capital HAVES, preying on the weakened, like Hyenas over a carcass, unable to stop gorging themselves on the misfortune of others. This is so incredibly short-sighted, and so strategically flawed over the longer term.
Then there are the obvious immediate opportunities, for the next “Meal”.
The “highly competitive”, are currently immersing themselves in that very challenge. The easy work or lowest hanging fruit is to identify those people with Hope (the forecastable “Haves”) and get to them faster than your competitors. As an insights rich company, our team can attest to the phenomenal increase in demand for these more immediate victories.
There is nothing wrong with competing for higher positions in competitive terrain, but that’s not all there is to do.
Here’s the juice! Make no mistake, we are at War here!
Whilst it is true that
“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” Sun Tzu
it is also true that
“In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good” Sun Tzu
So I would conclude that the most challenging and most economically necessary work is thinking how your business might lower the odds of opportunity, and allow people easier access to hope. There is no point in residing over destruction or hovering over the skeletal remains of demand.
When our economic capacities are challenged, people need to find much more cost-efficient or even cost-free ways to participate in Hope driven behaviours and actions, they need a pathway and this is where the real thinking and longer-term economic prospects lie.
Hope is of critical importance to the state, the state of our minds and our economy.
“Where there's hope, there's life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.” - Anne Frank
What do you think this means for you individually? How will you maintain hope?
What do you think it means for your business, it’s products and services? How can you lower the odds of opportunity and give easier access to hope for your customers?
What do you think this means for your team? What might you do for them so that they maintain the hope that drives their engagement and productivity?