The
new year is freshly before us, but before moving forward, I want to pause and
reflect on how my word for 2025 – hope – has shown up in my
thinking and doing, and to give you the chance to consider how it has shown up
in yours.
When
2025 started, hope for me was optimism. It was anticipation and expectation. It
was having a positive outlook. Hope was kind of a cross-your-fingers-and-see-what-happens
kind of feeling. But that quickly changed to a roll-up-your-sleeves-and-make-it-happen
kind of hope.
Podcaster
Emily P. Freeman calls this participatory hope. It’s different
from blow-out-the-candles-and-make-a-wish anticipatory hope,
which is fragile and outside of our control. Participatory hope is agentive and
active.
This
hard-work hope is what we do as coaches. In last January’s initial post on choosing
hope, I offered steps for a teachers’ pathway to hope: selecting a
goal, considering possible ways of getting there, and taking action. In another
post, I described what this path looks like for students, and how
teachers can guide students along a hopeful path.
Whether
that positive path is being pursued by teachers or by students (or by both
concurrently), coaches can support persistence and offer assurance, boosting hope.
In the process, we boost our own.
Hope
builds a solutions mindset in coaching conversations. It strengthens our perseverance.
Hope fuels curiosity, reinforcing the belief that small, intentional actions
can shape what comes next. As we think together, we can build a sense of
possibility. Optimism and a can-do attitude create contagious confidence. They
encourage resilience and a desire for continuous improvement. Hope is a compass
that orients us toward growth.
As
I step into 2026, I’ll choose a new word as a guide, but I plan to hold onto
hope – the active, participatory kind that gets things done. After all, that is
what coaches do – one hopeful conversation at a time.
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Did
you know My Coaches Couch is also a podcast? (with different content) Find it
in your favorite podcast app or at MyCoachesCouch.podbean.com
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This
week, you might want to take a look at:
The
important difference between sound and noise:
