Keeping Hope Amongst Fear

Each new year, most of us are filled with hope. Hope is why we celebrate right when the clock strikes midnight on a new year. It’s why we make resolutions. We’re ready to forget the hardships of the previous year and improve our lives.

For many of us, 2020 was a milestone. Not just a new year, but a new decade. For years prior, we looked forward, hopeful that 2020 would be the start of something new. The year things would turn around for the better. Or if you were already on an upward trajectory, things would continue going your way.

Little did we know, we’d be facing a global pandemic in 2020 and our lives will certainly be changed forever. At the moment, there is no end in sight. Projections for the lives that could be lost are staggering. The outlook for the economy is bleak. This is a scary time for many of us throughout the world and it would be easy to dwell in that fear.

But working at Share On Purpose the past eight years has taught me that hope is a powerful tool. One that, if given the attention it deserves, can change your present and your future.

We are a small company with big dreams, yet working towards them has not always been easy. We’ve parted with clients that made up the majority of our revenue. We grew too quickly without the right staff and infrastructure in place to support that growth. We’ve put trust in places we shouldn’t have. All of these missteps set us back on our path to reaching our dreams, but we have always been guided to keep hope.

Keeping hope means we set a certain expectation for how things will work out. We know that we’ll be able to work through whatever obstacle we’re facing and come out stronger on the other side by utilizing the lessons learned. We remain relentless in our belief that things will work out the way we want. The path most certainly isn’t what we thought it’d be, but we choose to believe the end result will be the same.

During difficult times, it can be hard to think about where you’re going and instead, set your attention on your present – your anger, fear and frustration. That’s when you must shift your focus to what is working. Find things to be grateful for. During tough business times, we focused on how our team came together and how we were able to innovate. This made it easier to keep hope.

For everyone who is stuck at home and fearful right now, find reasons to be grateful. Even though we’re physically separated, there’s a stronger sense of connection than I can ever recall before. I’ve spoken with more of my neighbors (from a safe distance) in the past two weeks than I had in the past two years living in my home. My social pages are filled with messages of people offering help to anyone who may need it, even complete strangers. We’re seeing videos from all around the world of communities coming together in unique ways, and even without being present, we feel a part of it. Yes, there is plenty bad, but there is also beauty in this pandemic.

We encourage you all to focus on what is working, finds things to be grateful for, and choose to keep hope.

“May your choices reflect your hope. Not your fear.” – Nelson Mandela