Find your reason for hope

Some people think that having hope is naive.

We get it. Many events and narratives right now are challenging our ability to imagine a future that feels good.

But if you’ve gone through difficulty in your own life, you know that hope isn’t a passive or easy feeling, it’s an active choice that requires courage, commitment, and a willingness to look the truth in the face.

In this post, we're offering 5 of our favorite quotes about finding hope and refusing to accept that the future is already written.

"The architecture of our future is not only unfinished; the scaffolding has hardly gone up."

- George Lamming, 1966

Our first quote comes to us from George Lamming, a novelist and poet from Barbados. This quote comes from an essay he wrote in 1966, where he imagined a better future for the Caribbean. 

Lamming’s words are as relevant now as they were 60 years ago. 

It can be easy to think of the future as a settled matter sometimes, when forces bigger than ourselves often seem to shape how things will unfold. 

But Lamming reminds us that the future is actually still up for debate, it is not a given.

For so many issues happening around us — how AI is transforming the world, as just one example of something unfolding quickly — we have barely caught our breath enough to participate in shaping how things will develop.

We are still at the earliest stages of many of today’s major challenges and opportunities. There is still so much room and possibility to shape the future.

"Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings."

- Victor Hugo

Our second quote comes to us from Victor Hugo, a french author, journalist, and human rights activist. You may know him as the author of "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" or "Les Misérables."

We love this quote because we believe in the power of self-trust.

Of course everyone has areas of weakness, but it is also true that we all have inner strengths and resources we can use to help us get through our challenges.

It can be helpful to look back into your own past.

You've likely been through challenges before that you learned from, and bounced back from even if things got rocky.

(P.S. You wouldn't be here reading this if you didn't have the resilience to keep forging ahead.)

Building our self-trust can remind us that even if our branch breaks, we can fly to another.

"You don’t choose the times you live in, but you do choose who you want to be."

- Grace Lee Boggs

Grace Lee Boggs, an American author and social activist, reminds us that we have personal agency during uncontrollable circumstances.

While we can't control historical events, we still have the power to define our character, mindset, and the actions we take in response to them.

We have personal integrity, and we get to define our own purpose. These are two things that no one can take from us.

"You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming."

- Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet and diplomat, who was forced into hiding and exile for several years during the late 1940s, and persecuted by a military dictatorship in the 1970s.

In this quote, Pablo emphasizes that no matter how much beauty, growth, or progress is suppressed or destroyed, the natural cycle of renewal cannot be stopped.

Just as winter must yield to spring, life will inherently move forward and begin again.

If you are facing challenges in this season of life, new seeds will likely sprout in the next.

“To be truly radical is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing.”

- Raymond Williams

Our last quote comes to us from Raymond Williams, a Welsh writer and activist.

Cynicism can be seductive — especially when we encounter mountains of evidence each day that things aren't going well.

Sometimes hopelessness feels like the only "smart" or "realistic" perspective a person can take.

While saying "everything is terrible" often feels true, it is also what's called a "thought-terminating cliché", or a phrase that stops critical thinking, dismisses dissent, and ends debate.

In other words, hopelessness prevents us from even trying to change our circumstances.

The work of turning hope into change — for situations in our own individual lives and for bigger issues that we care about — involves showing up each day and responding to the world with effort and a sense of possibility.

Sometimes it's not easy to pull yourself out of despair, but when you collaborate with other people, you can lift each other up when things get tough.

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P.S. If you aren't a member of Focused Space, but could use help accomplishing your goals, busting through procrastination, or getting motivated… you are welcome to join us at one of our live guided work sessions, or morning planning sessions!

Take care,

— Alexis and the focused space team