It’s easy to look at the world around us – the large world or our smaller community – and see people who lack hope. In fact, poverty of hope may be the greatest enemy of local and global human progress. Hope is what allows us to believe that change is possible long enough to make change happen. No matter how many tools , tips, and tricks we have, if we lack hope we are trapped.
I don’t accept the notion that hope is a finite commodity, like money or water. When it comes to hope, there needn’t be the “haves” and the “have nots.” Theoretically everyone CAN have hope. So I guess the question is, “how can we create or encourage or grow hope?”
I suppose that entire books have been and will be written on the subject, and writing a book is not my intention today. But one simple way I have observed to cultivate hope is to spend time with people who have it. When in the presence of hopeful people, I feel more hopeful. Perhaps hope is a contagion which needs to be spread!
Whenever someone says “I’m not really ready to try to quit right now,” I try to gently encourage them to come and just sit in on a couple meetings (or conference calls) or sign up for the daily text messages for a couple weeks. I also state that I will never try to pressure them to change, since doing so is usually counterproductive and create friction between me and the people I serve. If someone who is “on the fence” about making a change will come and see/hear/feel the hope and courage of others on the journey, I think many become “infected” with the contagion of hope. I’m quite certain that by facilitating QuittersWin groups I have become more hopeful. I have become “infected” and I guess that I -at least on good days- may even be a “carrier,” spreading hope to others.
I HOPE you’ll consider “sitting in” here at QuittersWin.
