Leading with Hope and Inspiration in Times of Despair

Nonprofit leaders advance their missions in the face of extraordinary and sometimes overwhelming barriers. Many teams are exhausted from the combined personal and professional demands from the pandemic, national policies working against us, and the daily impacts of racism, climate change, lack of gun control, and income inequality. 

How do we keep going when we’re feeling despair? 

Despair is a natural human reaction to the losses and devastations in our local communities and country, and this can be particularly overwhelming for social sector leaders who are dedicating every day of their lives to advancing equity and justice. 

Research compiled by the Greater Good Science Center found that successful resilience includes finding our higher selves in the midst of conflict and negative emotions. Successful approaches include looking to something larger than ourselves such as nature, ideals, and communities; looking inward; and looking to other people for meaning and purpose. 

The Greater Good Science Center’s Dacher Keltner, an expert on awe, identified eight wonders of life that inspire awe: the moral beauty of others, collective effervescence (such as dancing or singing together), nature, music, visual art, spiritual practice, big ideas, and encountering life and death. Awe leads us to feel we have more time in our work and to care more about the purpose of that work than its likelihood of bringing status or material gain. 

Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield recently shared his view that “despair is an insult to the imagination.” He reminds us that genuineness, happiness, and meaning will come through tending to suffering. Each of us can contribute to the sanity of the world by cultivating compassion for ourselves and others and acting for the benefit of others.