What is hope?

Helping Others see the Hope.

I'm often asked by doctors how I give hope to patients. I tell them, first off, that I don't feel that I'm ever really giving anyone hope. The hope must be present first and that's the key to what hope is all about. You don't create hope or invent hope or give hope. Hope is different than encouragement - although the two concepts are often confused. Hope is here right now. All I do is open people's eyes to something that is there. You can open the doors and close the doors to hope but I don't feel you can really give hope or take hope away as the saying goes. You do not own the hope of another fellow human. The hope of someone else is not yours. You simply help them see the hope that is present right now and the hope that is rightly theirs.

Hope is not about making people believe that they might awaken some day with a full head of hair. Hope is really about helping people realize that no matter the circumstances that life deals them, they will somehow be able to find the strength to get up in the morning in order to see if today will finally be the day their mind has long been rehearsing.

The four pillars of hope can be remembered by the four letters of the word hope - H.O.P.E. These remind us that hope is Honest, Optimistic, Patient and Evidence based.

Hope is honest. Hope builds its supporting foundation from honesty.

Hope is optimistic. Hope relies on a stubborn optimism that something positive could happen in the future. 

Hope is patient. Hope is willing to wait. There is no predicted timeline for when someone will feel that hope exists. The road ahead is unpredictable but hope reminds us that we’ll get their eventually.

Hope is evidence-based. Hope relies on facts and refutes anything that destroys hope through misinformation.