I open my copy of Positive News and catch sight of a subscriber’s quote on the inside page, “A ray of hope in challenging times.”
Wow! It gets me every time.
Yes, times are truly challenging. For the wider world. For friends and family. For my mission-driven clients. For me personally.
And yet, in the face of all this, Positive News, the uplifting current affairs magazine that lands on my hall mat once a quarter, makes it its entire purpose to tell different stories.
This week I read:
- That scientists have found a human heart can repair itself after injury. A huge breakthrough!
– - Stories of older people, ‘schooled in obedience’ all their lives, now taking joyfully disruptive action in their communities on the issues that concern them most.
– - Antarctica’s ozone hole really does appear to be shrinking after the massive global efforts of the last decades.
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I really need to hear all this. You too?
Bad news – is bad news
Much of what gets front-page attention, day in, day out, is grim. Relentlessly, and apparently hopelessly, grim. OMG, the news this last few days beggars belief.
It’s not surprising we feel utter despair at times.
A steady diet of bad news is genuinely bad for you and your body. Cortisol floods your system and you’re stuck in constant fight-or-flight mode, as if an Ice Age saber-tooth tiger is forever charging across the plain, directly at you. (There is no tiger, of course, but your nervous system sadly doesn’t know that.)
That’s not a sustainable way to live or to lead. It leads to chronic stress, burnout, illness, and a crushing sense that nothing you do will ever matter.
Hope is the antidote
All hail, gorgeous hope!
Hope is not the same as optimism, by the way. Optimism is a more passive belief that everything will probably be fine. A kind of happy hanging around waiting for good stuff to happen. Hope is more of an action. Hope is “being able to see that there is light, despite all the darkness”, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu so beautifully put it.
Hope acts as a buffer against stress and anxiety. It reduces feelings of helplessness. It improves your mental health. And most importantly, it keeps you moving, taking action and making change, even when things feel very dark indeed.
If you’re going to work to make this world a better place (and as a mission-driven leader, that is exactly what you’re doing) hope isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s an essential tool in your leader’s kit.
Finding your rays of hope
I’m not suggesting you stick your head in the sand and ignore the news. I read it, listen to it, watch it, probably too much, if I’m honest. But I notice the impact it has on me and on my clients, and I’m really trying to keep things under control.
One activity I recommend already to my clients is to write a gratitude list of at least ten things they’re grateful for. Cheesy? Maybe. But it’s a hugely impactful practice.
I also invite them to list their ‘rays of hope’ – small noticings of things that are going right, right now, in this moment.
Because even the tiniest conscious noticing sends a rush of dopamine and serotonin through the nervous system, and suddenly action feels possible again.
My twelve rays of hope (today)
- Celebrating my daughter’s 23rd birthday. She’s a recent graduate with no clear idea yet how she’ll make her mark on the world but she’s about to go travelling on her own, full of excitement and curiosity, and hope.
– - Feeling hugely inspired by reading Citizens: Why the key to fixing things is all of us by Jon Alexander. If you haven’t read it, please do!
– - My winter-flowering clematis suddenly bursting into life all along the garden fence, completely unannounced.
– - Gorgeous programmes like the BBC’s Small Prophet making me smile. It’s not all back-to-back reality TV. There is still wit and warmth out there.
– - Setting up my new ‘Spark in the Dark’ Substack where I’ll be sharing thoughts on bringing light into this tough world. Watch this space.
– - Renewable energy generating more electricity than fossil fuels for the first time. That is big!
– - Loved ones rallying round in the chaotic and pretty farcical planning around my on/off knee replacement operation. (More off than on, currently. Sigh.)
– - Watching extraordinarily brave young athletes hurl themselves off frozen slopes at great speed during the Winter Olympics. That kind of fearless, committed madness is contagious.
– - Giant tortoises are back living on the Galápagos Islands after 200 years. This one makes me really happy.
– - Writing this blog looking out at my sunny garden, being reminded that spring always, always, comes around after the long winter.
– - Energy costs finally going down in the UK. Hur-flipping-rah!
– - Witnessing a new CEO have a breakthrough moment recently and realising that they have far more power to make change in the world than they ever believed.
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Over to you
Are you seeing some rays of hope in your world right now, however small? I invite you to list them out, in writing, not just in your head, and notice what it does to your mood. I think you’ll be surprised.
What next?
If you’re a mission-driven leader who could do with someone in your corner. Someone to help you find your light and keep going, let’s talk. Email katie@katieduckworth.com and we’ll have a chat about one-to-one coaching together.
