By Jay Bildstein

Years ago I came across the phrase, “Frustration is okay,despair is not.” I do not know who said it or wrote it first, butthose words have stuck with me over the years. Despair is a stateof hopelessness. It is the worst state that any human being canfind themselves in. Many emotional states are acceptable. Sadness,anger, happiness, etc., all have their place. However, despair isto be avoided like the plague.

No matter what we do in life, we are sure to be met withfrustration. This goes for business people, athletes, students andpeople who are homemakers. Every day we are met with challenges.Some of those challenges are big and some are small. We oftenovercome the small challenges quickly and forget about them. Thebig challenges tend to frustrate us.

Frustration is okay, so long as it does not cause us to stoppursuing a worthwhile goal. A high frustration tolerance is a keyingredient in the success recipe. Yet, there is something even moreimportant than a high frustration tolerance. That would behope.

Hope is an essential human condition, an essential emotionalstate. Hope is the intuitive sensation telling us that things arebound to get better. What is the substance of hope? Hope is apositive mental state composed of wisdom and aspiration.

The great writer, Norman Cousins, once asserted, “No one issmart enough to be a pessimist.” That wise realization is thesubstance of hope. The optimism of young people, unbattered bylife, is the substance of hope. The understanding of folks who area bit older that, “This too shall pass,” is the substance ofhope.

Hope makes life worthwhile. If we lack hope then we must get ona hope cultivation program. If we are filled with hope then we musthelp people in need increase their hope quotient. Truly, hope isone of those particularly human elements that make life worthliving.