Hope, Value, and Purpose (part one Hope)

There is an interesting element involved in every ones' life. Hope. It is not discussed enough. Hope has to many important elements to be something that is so rarely discussed. In the book "How Full is Your Bucket" the researchers examined concentration camps in Cambodia and Vietnamese areas. These camps were graded on the death toll, survivors conditions and other key factors. The amazing part is that most of the camps that had the more severe torture physically were the ones with the highest survival rate short of execution being the factor. The camps that had an element of mental and emotional abuse had the highest death toll. There was a condition that was named from this where prisoner of war would literally go and lie down in his tent and die due to the condition.
When they looked further you want to know what the number one contributing factor was? Hope. The soldiers were never allowed to unify, the Cambodian militants would influence a soldier to betray the troops. They would reward lying and deceit among the prisoners and as a result there was no clear vision or hope of who to look to for leadership. Yes these camps were prisoner of war camps and they were not ideal conditions. But they made other POW camps look like a 5 star hotel. The elements that were broken was the hope.
When I am working with a suicidal client one of the three elements missing is the hope. The reader knows this, it is why someone who is in this far extreme appears hopeless.
In my mind hope is a belief that one can effectively accomplish achieve or attain a goal or by the faith in and the intervention of someone greater they will be able to.
There are some key things that you can do to raise your level of hope. Small successes added up over time lead to great hope. If hope is what you are lacking in don't take to eating an elephant of a goal. Break your elephant down, see yourself completing the tasks necessary that you know you can and complete the tasks, as a result of hope your vision for the task will allow you to see a little further in the journey, your momentum will allow you to go a little further. Harness these to elements stretch a little further in completing the task and use the momentum and vision to assist you in writing the next steps.

Joshua Andrus
www.hiresite.info