How to find hope.
This isn’t always an easy question.
Did you know that according to a survey conducted by the US Census Bureau, during the Covid pandemic in 2020, 48% of Americans reported feeling “down, depressed, or hopeless?”
I’m not surprised by this statistic.
But I do find it to be significant.
I believe that humans must have hope in order to thrive and survive.
If we don’t have hope, then we’re tempted to ask ourselves…
“What is the point of all of this?”
There’s no denying that life is hard.
But when we don’t have any hope that the future will be better, or that there’s something positive or beautiful to be found once we surpass these present obstacles—well, it stands to reason that we’re going to suffer.
- Our motivation will suffer
- Our drive will suffer
- Our ability to find inspiration and meaning in life will suffer
And we may even begin to feel like there’s just really no point in even trying.
If you’ve ever felt like this, then I feel for you.
Because I’ve been in the same place.
I’ve spent a lot of nights lying awake in my bed, wondering…
“Fuck… what is the point to this? Are things ever going to get better? Or am I doomed to just continue to suffer?”
(Note: Listen to this and other blog posts, as well as extra commentary and all kinds of other stuff on my podcast!)
Well, as it turns out, these are fair questions to ask.
But here’s the truth.
There is a purpose to it all, and there IS a reason to have hope.
But sometimes, it’s elusive—and you need to work a little bit to find it (or perhaps more accurately, create it) for yourself.
So in this post, that’s exactly what you’re going to learn how to do.
See, I’ve discovered a method for consistently creating hope in my life.
And when I find myself thinking about the future, these steps always empower me to find a reason to keep going.
Even better, these steps tend to make me even more hopeful as time goes on, and as I continue to practice them.
Does this mean that my life never feels the slightest bit hopeless?
Definitely not.
No matter how much work you do to progress your place or situation in life, there’ll always be room for a bit of hopelessness to creep in and cause some doubt.
But at least nowadays, I feel far less hopeless than I ever have before.
And these simple steps are the tools I use to help keep hopelessness at bay.
How To Find Hope – 5 Steps To Take When You Feel Hopeless
1. Decide That You’re Going To Take Action
This really speaks to the core of the alpha mentality.
What is the alpha mentality?
Well, for a deep dive into exactly what this means, check out this video.
But in a nutshell, it simply means this:
The alpha mentality is defined as a mode of being characterized by an attitude of intentionality and proactivity—deciding, starting today, to take direct and intentional action in your life to create the destiny that you desire, and to reclaim your power from the chaos around you.
This stands in direct contrast to the beta mentality, which is basically characterized by allowing life to happen to you, and reacting to it—as opposed to acting intentionally and creating your own destiny through proactive, decisive action.
See, at the core of it all, it’s in our best interest to choose that we are going to take action to fix our problems and rise above our challenges.
And in this case, it more specifically means that we must determine, within ourselves, that we’re going to choose to take direct and decisive action to do whatever it takes to create a life that gives us hope.
This is the very first step. It’s a subtle, but powerful foundational mindset shift.
Choosing to happen to life, instead of just allowing life to continue to happen chaotically to us.
2. Make A Plan
Making a plan is the second step.
And this step basically involves doing three things.
- Figure out a purpose for your life
- Decide how you’re going to fulfill that purpose
- Write down your goals, and create a roadmap to success
When you actually make a plan and write it down, you’ll begin to see that you CAN have hope for the future.
This is so incredibly powerful!
So many people never make a plan in life. And as a result, they tend to feel an intense lack of meaning and purpose. But they also fail to see how their lives are going to get any better—because there’s no plan of action in place.
Once you make a plan of action, you can finally go to bed and rest easy—knowing that as long as you follow the plan, you will be able to create that hope you’ve been searching for.
3. Fill Your Ears And Mind With Positivity
As you embark upon the journey of creating a new, hopeful life for yourself, you’re doubtlessly going to face many obstacles.
And to be quite honest, you’re going to be very tempted to fall back into hopelessness.
So, in order to combat this, it’s vitally important that you start spending more time around positive people, and that you start filling your ears with more wisdom, positivity, and hopefulness.
I have several thought mentors who I listen to regularly nowadays to help me with this exact same thing. Some of them include people like:
- Jordan Peterson
- Gary Vaynerchuk
- Joe Rogan
- Rick Ross (‘the boss’ Rick Ross, the rapper)
- And of course, my all-time-favorite—Arnold Schwarzenegger
Do you want a powerful dose of motivation and positivity? Listen to this speech, by Arnold Schwarzenegger… called ‘The Speech That Broke The Internet.’
No joke—I’ve listened to that speech probably about 100 times!
Sometimes, during my most hopeless nights, I would take a walk and listen to it on repeat.
One night, I even fell asleep listening to it over and over again.
It’s so important to fill your ears with positivity.
Shut out all of the negative bullshit. Shut out the people who don’t believe in you. Shut out the pessimists who don’t believe that you’re capable of accomplishing your dreams.
You only have one life. Don’t waste it paying attention to negative people.
4. Take Action And Be Consistent With Your Good Habits
Making a plan and filling your ears with motivation is a great start.
But do you really want to know how the process of ‘how to find hope’ begins?
By taking action.
Get started.
Commit to executing on your plan.
Do something different. Leave your comfort zone, take a risk, and start your adventure.
You know what they say…
“If you want something you have never had, you must be willing to do something you have never done.”
See, you can make a plan.
But if you never execute on that plan—guess what?
You’re going to sink right back into hopelessness.
Why?
Because you haven’t proven to yourself that you’re capable of changing your life.
When you fail to get started, you only show yourself one thing…
That you’re not willing to do the work it takes to change your life and create hope for yourself.
And if you won’t even do it… well, that doesn’t bode well.
Because odds are pretty close to 100% that nobody else is going to do it for you.
But you deserve better than that.
So make your plan, and get started… today!
5. Continue To Show Up For Yourself
Now we arrive at what may be the most difficult part.
You need to keep showing up for yourself.
No more excuses.
No more trying for one or two days, and then giving up and going back to that hopeless life you were living before.
Guess what?
Creating an amazing life is hard work.
There’s just no way around it.
And when you reduce it down to the simplest common denominator, this also means that creating hope for yourself is hard work.
So work your ass off.
When I first started this blog (and my podcast and YouTube channel), I dedicated 3 hours per day to it for the first year and a half without anyone noticing it.
I had very little traffic. I had no YouTube views to speak of. My podcast would get only a small number of plays with every episode. And to be honest, there were a lot of days where I would ask myself…
“Does this even matter? Am I really going to leave a lasting legacy of greatness and make any real difference in the world through a platform that nobody pays attention to?”
But guess what?
I had a plan, and I was determined to stick to it.
I cared about it. I cared about the vision, and this gave me both a purpose and hope.
And now, everything is growing by the day.
My channels aren’t supermassive yet—but they’re growing.
And even better, my business is actually helping people now.
I’m already making a difference in the world with my content, my mastermind tribe, and my courses—and I’m just in year 3 of the process (as of March of 2022).
Imagine how much more amazing it will all be 5 years from now?
But see, in order to get there and create that future for myself, I need to continue to show up, put in the work, and be consistent.
I need to execute every day to make my goals a reality.
But with every day that goes by, I get closer to those goals.
And that gives me massive hope that my future is just going to get better and better.
So today, make the choice to get started on your plan—and never stop.
Give yourself the chance to create the future you’ve dreamed of, and to create the lasting legacy that you actually believe in.
You’re capable! And to be honest, your legacy is worth far too much to give up on.
Can You Live Without Hope?
You may be able to eat, sleep, breathe, and go through the motions of life without hope—but here’s the truth.
It’s probably going to feel painful, dull, and lifeless.
Humans need hope to thrive. It’s just that simple.
And if you don’t feel like you have any hope today—well, all the more reason to jump into these 5 steps, and start creating it for yourself.
You deserve it.
But at the end of the day, only you can find and create hope for yourself.
If you keep waiting for someone or something to bring hope into your life—I hate to say it, but that’s just beta mentality in disguise—and you’re highly likely to be disappointed by the results when they either never materialize or fail to last.
How Can We Find Hope?
The only tried and tested way to find hope in this life is to figure out what your purpose in life is, and to commit yourself to making a plan and working hard to pursue it.
In other words; you must create your own hope in life by intentionally creating your own destiny.
FAQs
How to find hope in a hopeless situation.
If you’ve found yourself in a situation that feels truly hopeless—I would encourage you to just stop, take stock of what’s going on, and challenge yourself to make a plan anyway.
If your circumstances are really tough, then you may need to adopt a different type of plan.
You might need to get creative, flexible, and/or just downright inventive.
But listen—any plan, even an imperfect plan, is better than no plan.
How to find hope when you’re depressed.
If you’ve been feeling hopeless for some time now, then you’re likely also feeling depressed about it.
And understandably so!
You also may suffer from some depression as it is—and this certainly doesn’t help anything.
Depression can be tough to beat.
But here’s the thing:
Taking intentional action to make a plan and create hope in your life certainly won’t hurt you in your journey to overcome your depression.
In fact, it can really only make things better.
Be kind to yourself and move at a pace that works for you. Don’t overwhelm yourself.
But once again, the steps are still the same.
- Commit to taking action
- Make a plan
- Fill your ears with positivity
- Take action
- Continue to show up for yourself, and don’t give up
How to find hope in life.
You find hope in life when you prove to yourself that you’re actually headed in a better direction—a direction with a believable, positive outcome.
But in order for this to work, you need to make a plan and take intentional action.
If you just sit at home and ‘hope that hope will find you,’ you’re basically preparing yourself for massive disappointment in life.
You must take action to set yourself upon a course that’ll eventually bring you to a better place.
How to find hope when there is none.
There are some situations where you may not feel like there is any hope at all.
Personally, I have a saying that really relates to this…
You will only encounter one problem in life that will prove insurmountable and impossible to solve—and that will be the problem that kills you.
I actually wrote a blog post about death and mortality, which you can read here.
I also wrote a blog post about what to do when your day has defeated you.
And if you want to hear some of my more unceremonious thoughts about life, the struggle to create meaning, and the inevitable death that comes for all of us—check out this gem of a post that I once wrote while incredibly sleep-deprived and contemplating not only my own desire to leave a lasting legacy of greatness, but also my inevitable and impending doom as a human.
In other words…
It’s not truly over until it’s truly over… until we reach the true end of our journey.
It’s never truly over until we leave this mortal coil, to return to the dirt from whence we came—and the energy of our souls (if there is any such energy) returns to wherever it came from, is collected once again by the ‘source’ that created us, or is finally laid to rest.
This speaks all the more to the importance of making a plan, making the most of the life we’ve been given, and striving to leave a lasting legacy of greatness in the world.
I’m a huge fan of the show Vikings. (Warning: spoiler ahead).
And personally, I love the quote delivered by the character Ragnar Lothrok, spoken just before he dies.
I know that it’s fictional. But whenever I read it or hear it, it really gives me strength—and helps me to remember that, though we’re not here forever—we can take solace in the fact that our lives are meaningful while we live, and that we make a significant difference in the world just by being here, even after we’re gone.
“It gladdens me to know that Odin prepares for a feast. Soon I shall be drinking ale from curved horns. This hero that comes into Valhalla does not lament his death! I shall not enter Odin’s hall with fear. There I shall wait for my sons to join me. And when they do, I will bask in their tales of triumph. The Aesir will welcome me! My death comes without apology! And I welcome the valkyries to summon me home!”
Ragnar Lothbrok – Vikings
In fact, the final and 18th vow of my alpha code, The Oath of Kings and Queens, speaks directly about our mortality, and the importance of making every day count while we have the chance to do so.
“I understand that every day is a battle… and that there is no guarantee of victory tomorrow. So I vow to live gloriously and wisely on this day of days, setting my sights on the battle before me, without losing sleep or hope to the unknown horizon.”
This is truly the alpha way.
Final Thoughts – How To Find Hope
If you’ve been feeling hopeless lately, I hope that this blog post has helped you.
I hope that you’ll take these steps seriously, and that you’ll at least give them a try.
These are the exact same steps that I’ve taken in my own life to help me create my own hope for myself—and I believe that they can do the same for you.
And of course, don’t forget—spending time with your loved ones, laughing, having fun, engaging in play, travel, and exploration, and practicing gratitude along the way are also powerful extra steps that you can (and should) also take.
That’s all I’ve got for now on this one.
Go with grace, my friends. And never give up your power.
Until next time…
Joshua K. Sigafus