202: What are you choosing to be hopeful about?

Can I just say, thank you for celebrating with us this 200-episode milestone. It’s been fun to look back at all the shows we’ve done but today I want to turn to where we’re headed.

If you receive our weekly Do Good Digest email newsletter, you’ve heard me share this idea of hope in recent months (and if you don’t you should get on the list now at caringmagazine.org/subscribe).

We’ve been publishing this show for a few years now and I like to think it has helped you build well-being in the life and soul of your neighbors and family and given you a window into real-life change happening in communities across the U.S. through The Salvation Army.

We’ve featured so many individual stories of transformation as well as academics, psychologists and the likes of Guy Fieri, Dr. Beth Allison Barr and Pete Greig. Rick Warren even read a chapter of his new book for us. And so many experts from within The Salvation Army have helped us better understand this organization we know and love. 

I’m told this podcast is one of the top 3% most popular shows out of 3.3 million podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score.

I know—that’s a lot of podcasts that are available to you and your time is limited. So if you are sharing it here with me—well, I am so grateful and I want it to be valuable.

I thought this was a nice synopsis from a kind reviewer on Apple Podcasts: “This podcast makes accessible what so many want, but don’t exactly know how to achieve—living to make a difference, in both sweeping and ‘day to day’ strokes.”

That is what we’re doing here and I believe there’s always room to evolve, to grow. To be more helpful to you.

I’m always paying attention to what’s going on in the lives of our listeners—you—and I guess I’ve spotted this idea because I am you.

A lot of people with hope for a better world let it end there.

Why is that?

You’re here so I know you’re one of the hopefuls, someone who knows where there’s movement there’s hope—and you’re willing to do something. You want to see your community, your family, your kids be resilient and good.

To you, it’s not a pipe dream to want a world that works better for everyone—but it can feel daunting. Impossible even.

Just look at the stories of impact: the billboard-worthy personal transformation. The lifetime of service. The gift that comes with building naming rights. Surely, they knew or possessed something you don’t. Right? Maybe you feel a gap between your vision and your daily reality. Because your days? They’re filled to the brim with laundry-loads, meetings, shuttling kids between activities and squeezing in a little “time for you” too, whatever that means.

How do you actually move from believing something with all your heart—let’s call it your “why”—to actually doing something about it?

How do you turn hope into action?

It’s funny, I’ve been planning this theme, if you will, for our upcoming season for some time now, booking guests and planning the conversation as a whole in the months to come.

And then, just a few weeks ago, someone sent me a link to an appearance by Nick Cave on Stephen Colbert’s late night show. Now, I’ll admit, I had to look up who Nick Cave is, so if you’re also wondering, he’s an Australian musician, writer and actor. I don’t actually know anything more about him than that so I can’t speak to who he is as a whole, BUT, I thought this little clip captures exactly what we’re talking about as one of the hopefuls.

Listen in to this clip from the show.

“Hopefulness is not a neutral position…”

“Each redemptive or loving act, as small as you like …  keeps the devil down in the hole…”

“It says the world is worth believing in…”

On this show, we’re reclaiming the meaning of “doing good,” of giving, of volunteering—of action. Because you don’t need to do anything “big” to have a big impact. The fact is, making the world work better for everyone does not require anything grandiose. And it isn’t naive. Instead, it’s about being ready. Hope is the sum total of a ton of very small motions forward. It’s the collection of choices that make a mark—any of which you could make.

Listen, I’m a mom to three small boys and most days, while I wish I was the “I think I can” train, instead I feel like I’ve been run over by it. Between baseball fees, another lost library book, and even more rounds of doctor visits thanks to the latest daycare bug, I don’t feel like I have enough resources and certainly don’t feel like I have enough time left over for anything more.

But I do have hope. And I know even the most micro actions add up to a lot of good.

I love this reframing of hope because no, it’s not a passive thing you have no control over.

It’s active.

It’s a lever to help bend reality in the right direction, for yourself and for others.

So even—maybe especially—when we feel a scarcity of resources and time, how do we act? What can you—what can I do to move toward a world that works better for everyone? What could happen if we each do some small something?

If you are one of the hopefuls maybe feeling less hope that you can actually do anything about it, let’s get curious.

Let’s explore what it takes, the practice of getting involved and living to make a difference day-to-day together.

Let’s pick up our hope and make use of it today.

And I have a super simple way you can raise your hand as one of the hopefuls right now.

If you are :

☑️ Hoping for a better world.
☑️ Longing for what’s good.
☑️ Filling days to the absolute brim. 
☑️ Caring to turn hope into action.
☑️ Feeling a scarcity of resources.
☑️ Willing to pay attention.
☑️ Wanting do some small something. 
☑️ Supporting goodness in others.
☑️ Knowing small actions add up to make a big difference.

If you are willing to See Good and Spread Good, then get inside the Hopefuls Collective from The Salvation Army’s Caring Magazine.

Once you’re in, introduce yourself. Tell us about something good you saw or experienced this week. Tell us: What are you choosing to be hopeful about right now?

Imagine we had a good-living modern village with real talk, real stories and real support for being human and hopeful.

This is it. 

Let’s see goodness and spread goodness together.

I’ll see you next week right here on The Do Gooders Podcast but before this episode ends, I’m bringing you the voices of real listeners sharing why they are choosing to be hopeful right now.

Listen in here. 

Additional resources:

• If you are one of the hopefuls, get on the list for the Do Good Digest, our free 3-minute weekly email newsletter used by more than 26,000 hopefuls like you for a quick pick-me-up in a busy day.  
• If you are enjoying this show and want to support it, leave a rating and review wherever you listen to help new listeners hit play for the first time with more confidence.  
• If you want to help The Salvation Army serve more than 24 million Americans in need each year, give today. Your gift of money, goods or time helps The Salvation Army do good all year in your community.  

Listen and subscribe to the Do Gooders Podcast now.