Incredible India Monthly Contest of August#1: Hopeless end or Endless hope!
One of the most important things in life that can help an individual get on with his life is hope. In this world, all human beings have tough times. There are occasions when we experience failure, disappointments, financial issues, rejection, loneliness, family issues, or unexpected situations. At these times, our thinking can get clouded with negative thoughts. Questions like “What is the point of continuing?” or “Will things ever get better?” might arise in our minds. The difference between a hopeless end and endless hope is very important here.
To me, a hopeless end is the place that we will end up if we are in a difficult situation. Endless Hope: The belief that there is a chance for something better even if things are challenging right now.
What Does ‘Hopeless End' Mean?
Hopeless end is a feeling about a person that there is no more opportunity, solution, possibility before him. The sense of helplessness that everything has gone wrong, and nothing can be done to remedy the situation.
For instance when a student doesn't do well in an important exam, he/she might start thinking that “I have failed, I can never succeed.” When somebody loses his or her job, he or she might imagine that, “I will never get another job.” When a big disappointment happens, one may come to think that there may never be happiness again.
What's the issue with this way of thinking you ask, it's that one bad experience can start to feel like the entire experience of our lives. We can tend to overlook that there are various chapters to life. If one chapter is bad, the book isn't necessarily bad.
I think that a sense of hopelessness can influence our behaviour, too. The person might not try any longer if he/she thinks there is no hope. They might cease to seek opportunities, discover and engage in new activities, seek assistance, or plan for the future. In this case it gets more challenging because the mind has already given up.
What does "Endless Hope" mean?
The opposite approach to challenging situations is endless hope. It is not to say that we deny that there are problems. It's not a refusal of the idea that our troubles are the end of the road.
Endless hope for me means saying, “Things are tough right now, but someday things might be different.”
One can fail an examination, but they still have another opportunity to prepare and do well. Individuals can be separated from their jobs, but gain a different one and a new opportunity. It's possible for people to feel disappointed, but they can still discover new ways to be happy.
Hope is the strength to persevere when we don't know what lies on the other side of the journey. Sometimes we may not be able to see how a problem will be solved, but hope helps us to move forward.
I have learned that hope is not necessarily a sense of expectation that things will turn out the way we want. Sometimes, hope is nothing more than a belief in something still to be achieved.
How do they affect our thinking processes?
Hopelessness and hope can impact how we think, in very different ways.
In the hopeless state our thinking is very much on the 'what went wrong' side of things. We can focus on all the negative things that have happened and forget all the positive things that have happened. Sometimes we say, for example, “Nothing will ever change,” or “I can never succeed.” These thoughts can make a problem seem even greater.
Hope engenders a different mode of thinking. We can start to ask ourselves "what can I learn from this?" or "what can I do next?" rather than asking "why did this happen to me?
This shift in thinking can affect our behaviour. If we think that there is still something we can do, we will make an attempt. We can ask for guidance, learn from our failures, attempt another way, and go another route.
Let's say I wanted to do something and I didn't do it, I can say, "Oh, it didn't work, I didn't do it. Or, "Oh, it didn't work, I didn't do it, but I learned something from it. If I see it as the end, it will be the end. If I find it to be a lesson then I can look at what I have done wrong and try again with more knowledge.
What's the key to changing hopelessness to endless hope?
The first place to start is to realize that challenges are a necessary part of life. This doesn't have to be an ideal day all the time. When we are having difficulties, our lives are not going nowhere and our future is not ruined.
The second step is to not let one situation be the defining aspect of our future. Failure is not a thing, it is not who we are. A season of life can be difficult but doesn't need to be our current state.
One of the other steps that needs to be taken is to concentrate on small moves. If a problem seems to be very large, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the overall task of working on the problem. Rather, we can ask the question, “What is a little thing I can do today?” In some cases, it takes a little step to take a turn.
The lessons learnt from the past experiences should also be learned. All failures are learning experiences. Each failure can provide us with more insight. Each and every hardship can become an attribute—such as patience, courage, wisdom and resilience.
Helping from others is also crucial. So we get discouraged sometimes, because we don't share all our problems. You can talk to a trusted person for a different view, and to keep in mind that you don't need to do everything on your own.
Above all, I think that hope takes time. Not all the problems will be solved now. There are times we must press on when we don't see the outcome right away.
I invite @sduttaskitchen, @meraindia and @piya3 @sampabiswas to drop a very constructive comments on this post and also to participate in this contest.