What I've Learned Blog I Share Hope

By: Czarina Atienza

I’ve been freelancing as a transcriptionist for years now and I’ve transcribed a wide variety of topics from TV shows to legal to religion to medical. No matter how sensitive or personal or outrageous the topic, I’ve always just considered them as “a job” that comes and goes. I don’t agree or disagree. I don’t judge. I don’t learn. I don’t empathize. I’m the robot that turns the audio to a readable document.

A few years ago, I got this job, The I Share Hope Project. I was hired as a transcriptionist for the project and I got to start work on Episode 3. I remember it was an interview of Greg Hickman. His quote at the very beginning of the audio struck me. He said, “When you’ve identified that one thing, make sure that you’re not allowing other people’s success or what other people have or what you hope to have necessarily define what you think you need to be doing.”

I thought that was interesting…I wondered what the next words would be. I went on to work on the audio and the further I got, the more I was able to identify with what he was saying. He quit his job so he could start working for himself. It’s that one thing that he’s been delaying and delaying because he was perfecting his contingency plan because, you know, it’s a big step. What’s funny was I quit my full time job so I could work from home and I got to work on this interview which I am so identifying with. I felt like this was really for me to hear because it’s what I needed to hear. People get scared when taking big leaps but it’s that hope that you’ll make it that matters.

He mentioned something about putting off plans of working for himself until his wife stopped believing that he would actually act on it. I was like that too. I put things off because of the negative “what if’s” until my family thought that working from home was just this daydream until I finally did it – I set up my very own home workstation! The man in this inspiring interview that I feel very lucky to have transcribed is now very successful with all the things that he is doing. He said once you found that one thing that you like to do, don’t make other’s lives, who are way ahead of you, be a pattern for what you need to do. Don’t walk on the path that they made – make your own path. I listed that down because I felt that I needed to remind myself that a lot. Sure it would be easier to just follow somebody else’s pattern for success, but wouldn’t it be nice if you succeeded discovering things for yourself?

So what did I exactly hear from this interview that made me think hope is real?

It’s not where he is now or his success. It’s the inspiration that I got from this talk and this is just the first episode I worked on. First, I’ve never really thought that much about hope. When I hear the word ‘Hope’, I think cigarette because it’s a cigarette brand where I live. Anyway, he was asked what his definition of hope was. He had a long answer, but the line that stuck to my brain was “you’re going to bounce back”. I didn’t realize until that moment that I was holding onto hope getting into things I really haven’t done before – just that self-assurance that yes, if I fail here, I will bounce back.

I’ve always been a fan of self-motivation, I think, because I talk to myself a lot. I think I got that from the nature of my job which is to listen, not talk. I’m used to hearing voices from my earphones so I guess I understand more when I’m listening and this podcast was such an eye-opener for me, a great resource of hope and a lot of beautiful things that people can do for each other. I’m not just talking about that Episode 3, I’m talking about it in general because at the moment I’m working on Episode 96 (well that escalated quickly)! The more episodes I transcribe for this project, the more I believe in hope, what hope is, what hope is not and how to use it. I get more optimistic with the future because I get to “meet” people that are actually doing something to better the world. I get inspired to do good things too or to help however I can with whatever I have – I learned that helping does not require too much. I learned how much hope you can give and actually get from being kind and I try my best to apply that every day. (Listen to all the 96 episodes that I’m transcribing and you’ll get what I’m saying.) 

Hope is real…it’s very real.

Some people say it’s just a dream of a better future, but I’d say it’s real because there’s a lot you can do now to make that dream happen. I’d say hope is a formula and it would look like this:

Dream of a better future + Act on it now = Hope

If it’s just a dream, then it’s not hope. If it’s just doing things today without a goal, it’s not hope. But, if you combine those two, that is hope. #WhatI’veLearned.