Titanic – Never Let Go!

Chronic fatigue , conflicted feelings, a sense of powerlessness, entrapped and excessive anxiety are all signs of despair and hopelessness.

When faced with despair and hopelessness the important thing is to Never Let Go.

The Christian hymn, Amazing Grace written by john newton and published in 1779 is a message of being delivered from despair and hopelessness. If you know the history of John Newton, he was forced into the Royal Navy and after leaving the navy became involved in the Atlantic Slave Trade. In 1748 a violent storm battered his ship so severely he called out to God for mercy, a moment that marked his spiritual conversion.

If you are faced with despair and hopelessness in addition to being drawn closer to your faith there are three things you should do to restore hope.

1. Explore your gifts and passions with someone you love2. Help others that are less fortunate than you are3. Don’t stop dreaming and never let go.

Picture the scene from the 1997 by James Cameron’s epic romantic disaster movie Titanic.

1. Explore your gifts and passions with someone you love

In one of the opening scenes Rose Dewitt (played by Kate Winslet) considers suicide by jumping off the ship's stern and Jack Dawson (Leonardo Dicaprio) a drifter and artist stopped her.

Jack: don't do it.

Rose: stay back! Don't come any closer!

Jack: Come on, just give me your hand. I'll pull you back over.

In this initial exchange Jack is offering himself as a friend to Rose to open the opportunity for her to explore her gifts and passions with someone. Throughout the rest of the movies Rose explore her passion for the arts and different culture with Jack. if you are like Rose from the Titanic, get involve in your community or joining an organisations such as Toastmasters can be your first step to overcoming despair and hopelessness.

As you explore your gifts and passion it is imperative that you be good to yourself and celebrate both small and big successes. Celebrate the fact that you are smart enough, informed enough, strong enough, sensitive enough, to feel utterly hopeless but knowing life is not perfect.

2. Help others that are less fortunate than you are

In the movie Titanic Jack went all out to ensure that Rose did not jump, he told her he would jump in after her.

1

Rose: No, stay where you are! i mean it! i'll let go!

Jack: [he approaches slowly, gesturing to his cigarette to show that he is approaching merely to throw it over the side into the ocean] no, you won't.

Rose: What do you mean, "No, I won't"? Don't presume to tell me what I will and will not do, you don't know me!

Jack: Well, you woulda done it already.

Rose: You're distracting me! go away!

jack: I can't. I'm involved now. You let go, and I'm, I'm go to have to jump in there after you.

Rose: Don't be absurd. You'd be killed!

In this scene Rose is able to take a pause from her own sense of despair and hopelessness and reflect on how absurd it would be for someone else to jump in after her. She is able to extricate herself from herself from her current state of mind and reflect on the state of Jack. On reflection she may have concluded that for Jack to jump in after her he must be in a worse position than she.

In life if you truly want to know how great life is we should talk with other hopeless people or people less fortunate than we are.

3. Don’t stop dreaming and never let go.

As it turned out the titanic sank. In one of the last scenes Jack told Rose never to let go and Rose promised never to let go! As the rescuers called for people with their flashlights to see if anyone is alive Rose remembers her promise and yells for the boat to come back, but can hardly speak. She sees the dead man floating with the whistle and uses all her strength to swim to him. She blows the whistle and the men in the life boat hear it and find her.

Live begin at the point when you are just about give. Life begins at the point when you are just about to let go…when face with despair and hopelessness

1. Explore your gifts and passions with someone you love2. Help others that are less fortunate than you are3. But most importantly don’t stop dreaming and never let go!

Mark McKenzie is a leading Subject Matter Expert in financial services regulation and supervision as well as a professional motivational speaker, corporate trainer and youth mentor. He can be contacted by email mastbmckenzie@gmail.com or by telephone 647-406-4622.

2