It feels like we could all do with a good dose of hope right now. Something to aim for. A goal we are striving towards that can actually become a reality.
With the current challenges facing society and this planet we call home, I find myself wondering: is the disruption and instability around the world causing paralysis… or reactivity? Are we so driven by the need for quick answers and solutions that we’re slipping into blame and individualism? And if so, could hope, when it’s connected to positive behavioural action, be the antidote? Could it be the thing that brings us back together and sets us on track towards a better future?
Hope in action
Reflecting on the celebrations of Sir David Attenborough’s remarkable century recently, it really brings this to life. Decade after decade, he has served, learned, inspired and shared. His enthusiasm for the natural world has sparked something in so many of us, a sense that we too can be change-makers.
If we can draw on hope not as wishful thinking, but as a force that helps us act, care and live more in harmony with the other living beings we share this planet with. So how do we build more of that? How do we support each other to move towards a more utopian, rather than dystopian, future?
The science of hope – it’s a thing!
This is where human behaviour change really matters, because hope becomes powerful when it turns into the small, everyday actions that shape how we live. Hope isn’t just a fluffy idea, it’s rooted in science. It affects both our minds and our bodies. It shapes how we cope, builds our resilience, fuels our motivation and plays a significant role in our overall health and wellbeing.
To harness hope, we need agency, the belief that we can make things happen, that our goals are not just distant ideas, but something we can move towards. The good news is we don’t have to start big. Sometimes hope begins with something as simple as putting one foot in front of the other.
We’re not meant to do this alone
As social animals, we need each other, and hope grows when it’s shared through connection, encouragement and inspiration. Think about the people who have influenced you. For me, David Attenborough, Jane Goodall, and so many more everyday leaders, quiet changemakers. They remind us of what’s possible. They show us, in a good way, that hope is contagious.
It’s also something we can nurture. Tools like children’s hope scales remind us that from a young age, beliefs such as “my dreams can come true” and “I am resilient” really matter. These are not just nice phrases, they are foundations for action now and into the future.
Hope needs space to breathe
The more I step into a slower, more comfortable way of being, and lean into my brain bimbling (yes love my bimbling), the more I notice my sense of hope growing. Recently I’ve been lucky enough to walk in the Italian hills with very special friends and spend time in France with my father and sister, which involved a lot of swimming. Simple things, but they forced me to slow down. To stop, to notice, to be. To sit with things, I might once have dismissed as activities I don’t have time for, and to just take a moment and be still. It’s in this stillness that I noticing more space for hope. Space for perspective, for imagination, for possibility. After all …
“What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?”
We don’t want to end up in a world where we can’t stand beneath the trees, watch the sheep, cows, squirrels, the sun and the stars … as William Henry Davies summed it up
“A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare”.
We need to push back, to make time and space and then and protect it – as this in the oxygen needed for hope.
Moving towards hope in action
So where does that leave us? Perhaps with a gentle invitation to ourselves and others to:
- Start small
- Build agency
- Share hope
- Slow down enough to notice it
- Support each other as changemakers
Then hope can take root and grow, as to be successful changemakers, we all need a bit of hope in our lives.
Final thought
Hope isn’t a grand, sweeping idea. It’s something practical. Something we can all practise daily in what we do, say, think and how we show up. The question I leave you with is this: what does hope look like for you right now and how are you going to grow, nurture and share it?
