Overcoming Hopelessness

by Kevin Ngo
Hopelessness is a feeling that can be far more destructive than facing defeat and
failure. When you are out there trying to accomplish your goals and you fail to achieve
them, as long as you still have hope and faith that you will eventually reach your goals,
you will keep pressing on. When you feel hopeless, that’s when you are in danger of just
giving up on your dreams. Let’s take a look at this specific feeling and what you can do
to overcome it.

One of the main reasons why people fail to achieve their goals is because of
obstacles. If you think about it though, what is a goal without obstacles? Is getting up and
getting a drink of water hard for you? Of course not. That’s why it’s not considered a
goal. When you attempt to accomplish something where there is a chance of failure, you
are pursuing something worthwhile. As long as you believe that the goal is within your
reach, you will have a chance.

Feelings of hopelessness will usually come when you have experienced defeat
after defeat. After failing so many times, it can be easy to feel as if there is no point in
continuing. What’s the use if you are going to end up failing again? You can sit around
and feel sorry for your hopeless dreams or you can stand up and say, “So what?” So what
if you don’t achieve your goals the first for 100th time you try? If you want to achieve
your goals, then your approach must be about doing until. How long will you get up and
try again? Until you accomplish your goal.

Hopelessness is just another word for giving up or surrendering. You feel like
there is no point or no use in continuing so why bother? Well, you need to understand
that many of the greatest successes and accomplishments in life came after the point
where having hope was easy. It’s easy to be hopeful when you are first starting out to
pursue your dreams. It’s still easy even if you are met with your first couple of challenges
and obstacles. It’s when you meet your 10th one, or your 25th one, or your 100th one that
having hope starts to get difficult. It’s during this time where you must not lose hope
because you will be so close.
 Being hopeful means to have faith. Having faith means that you know things will
turn out well even if you have not evidence that it will. If you know of at least one
person, living or dead, who has accomplish the goals that you have set out to accomplish,
then you can use them to strengthen your resolve and your faith that if it’s possible for
someone, then it’s possible for you. Hopelessness is easy. Anyone can feel that way. It’s
the people who will keep going, who will never allow themselves to lose hope, are the
people who achieve their goals and dreams in life.