Hope alive

Hope is not a passive state, it is active—a decision to persevere in spite of the situation.

Hope is the ability to look up when you have been knocked down. Hope is the resilience to fight back when you've been broken. Hope is taking the risk that things will be better tomorrow, even though today was difficult.

Hope is deciding that no matter what happens, you will continue to work for a better life.

Hope is the belief that diversity makes us stronger, that women should be equal and that we are stronger together than we are apart.

Hope is believing that we can be better people and make a more inclusive world, and it is realizing that doing so requires us to connect with each other as human beings, not as categories of people.

My hope has not been torn apart.

Hope, the most fragile and powerful emotion that enables us to carry on as humans in the face of any amount of loss. Whether it be a job, a relationship, an object or any other physical possession, it is hope that continues to keep us moving forward when everything in our lives seems to be falling apart.

In life, hope is all we have besides faith. It is the little glimmer of light at the end of the dark tunnel that gives us a reason to get back up after having fallen, for in the end, we continue to get back up because we are hopeful that it will not always be this way. We never give up hope that there will be something better in store for us.

This is the hope that keeps me getting through the day and makes me believe in things I have yet to see.

Irrationally Hopeful

Irrationally hopeful is when you continue to hope even when there is no rational reason to do so. This type of hopefulness keeps us going, even when we are surrounded by people who tell us things like: "Don't worry" or "Think positive". All I want them to know is that I am trying, but optimism has its limits.

As I move into another year with high hopes, I remain irrationally hopeful because this is how I was raised, and I know no other way of living. With all of my heart, I believe that things can still get better – if only for a moment.

There are some days that are hard. Some days that make it hard to keep going. Days where you just get the feeling that things will never work out. Days where it's hard to have hope...

...or so I thought.

There is hope, in any situation even when things look hopeless, because remember there are two sides to every story and you may not be seeing the full picture. Today I was faced with a seemingly impossible situation. One of my best friends and leaders on my team had lost all hope and love for what we do here. The things we accomplish as a team may seem easy to some but in reality this lady has been working tirelessly for the past seven years for me without asking for a single dime in return - simply because she loves me and believes I'm doing something that's bigger than myself. It's not easy building an empire from scratch. My dreams have been fulfilled but my empire is still growing at a rate that I cannot control sometimes. Even with the support of my family and my mastermind group, I still have days when I lose hope and motivation too. So when Janet sent out a group email stating that she had enough and she was leaving, I felt lost and hopeless. Especially because I was trying to figure out how to compensate her for her work and commitment here - which is the one thing that has eluded me so far in growing my business - paying people here to do their best work.

Many of us have faced challenges in our lives where we questioned if there was a way out. Where you thought your situation would never get better. Or maybe you've even felt like you were at the end of your wits and had nothing left to give.