Review: Have a little hope!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 30, 2013
"Have a Little Hope" is a well-planned, comprehensive look at the concept of hopelessness and the creation of hope. Adams offers a step-by-step plan to overcome hopelessness, including logical steps that guide you from identifying your underlying beliefs and deciding to make change happen in your life through creating replacement beliefs for the confining beliefs identified earlier and finishing with a call to action and a source of inspiration to keep your motivation strong. This guide is respectful of individuals' spiritual beliefs, neither advocating nor belittling the need for a certain belief system to make change possible. Such impartiality is unusual for a topic like hope that is discussed so frequently in the major religions worldwide. As a trained therapist, I found this book to be a notable resource that people suffering from depression and its ever-present hopelessness could use to support psychotherapeutic interventions. Personally, I found this book to be helpful as well. In tones resonant of Reality Therapy, Adams challenged me to look at the things I have been struggling with, be honest about the situation, and own my responsibility in the issue. I often have found that the things I readily see in others I cannot see in my own life. This guide was the perfect nudge to get me to examine my beliefs about an issue I have been wrestling with, my need to lose weight. I don't know exactly how Adams' anecdotes and stories related to hope that begin each chapter truly spoke to me, but they did. I have realized that the reason I don't want to diet isn't because diets don't work (the reason I always state) but because I have never had success at dieting. I was encouraged enough by this realization to think about a replacement thought that is more positive and encompassing. My new thought will be, "While some diets are not what I need to achieve weight loss, a diet that takes better notice of the calories I consume each day will help me successfully lose weight." I have found a person to serve as my inspiration (a relative) and have rallied my family and friends behind me to push my call to action onward as I move forward with this new belief day by day. I can't wait to see how this new diet/way of life turns out, and I look forward to posting positive results in the coming months. If you have been struggling with an issue or feeling hopeless or been in need of encouragement, this guide is definitely a good resource to help egg you on into action and change. Thank you, R. L. Adams. I needed that encouragement!