This document discusses how to overcome despair and hopelessness by exploring three strategies inspired by the film Titanic. The strategies are: 1) exploring your gifts and passions with someone you love, 2) helping others who are less fortunate, and 3) never giving up on your dreams and never letting go of hope. These strategies are illustrated with scenes from Titanic where Jack helps Rose overcome her despair by engaging her passions and supporting her when she is ready to give up. The overall message is that facing despair with community, purpose, and perseverance can help restore hope even in life's most difficult moments.

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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 love
2. Help others that are less fortunate than you are
3. Don’t stop dreaming and never let go.
Picture the scene from the 1997 by James Cameron’s epic romantic disastermovie 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 JackDawson (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.

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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 love
2. Help others that are less fortunate than you are
3. 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.