I want to live my life with the hope and conviction of a six year old in superman pajamas.

When my brother was six years old, someone gave him a pair of superman pajamas. These were in the days of Saturday morning cartoons when the two of us soaked up every episode of Super Friends, Scooby Doo, and Bugs Bunny before running outside to play for hours with the neighbourhood kids.

I imagine Jason might have worn these pajamas while riding his bike, exhilarated by the feeling of soaring down our dead-end road as if he could fly.

No-one thought to mention that he couldn’t. So he did.

He ran through the house, opened our patio door and before anyone could stop him, yelled “up, up, and away,” flying off our back deck at lightning speed.

The pajamas, likely ordered through Sears Catalogue, did not it turns out, increase his strength, speed, or ability to fly. He landed with a thud in the backyard, a moment that became a part of family folklore. While the lesson came with a goose egg and a few stitches, I always saw it as a symbol of my brother’s hopeful optimism.

The ability to be guided by hope is a gift. It doesn’t mean things will always work out as planned, but it provides a platform for a different way of thinking and living.

In his book, Nothing is Impossible,” Christopher Reeve said, “Once you choose hope, anything is possible.”

Reeve played Superman in the 1978 movie. He was an icon of invincibility until 1995, when a horseback riding accident shattered his vertebrae and left him paralyzed. While I had idolized Superman as a child, Reeve’s resilience after this tragedy, the way he maintained positivity, rising up to become a powerful voice for spinal cord injury research cemented his legacy as a true hero. He chose hope.

According to an article published by the Global Brain Health Institute, “Hope is not optimism, which is a belief that everything will work out. Hope is much more active, a feeling and a mindset that you have to work at in order to achieve.”

Hope has immense benefits, improving “health, quality of life, self-esteem, and a sense of purpose. It is an essential factor for developing both maturity and resilience,” said an article in Harvard Health.

While I don’t recommend testing the laws of physics (as my brother learned the hard way, you can’t stop gravity), I do recommend believing you are capable of more, of pushing yourself beyond your current limits.

A few years ago, when I was training to ride my bike over 200 km as part of a fundraiser, my dad taught himself to play The Cape by Guy Clarke. I’d never ridden my bike such a distance. It was a huge stretch for me. I didn’t know if I could do it. I stopped at his house on a training ride for a glass of water and some motivational wisdom. He sat me down by his wood stove and played it for me.

[She’s] one of those who knows that life

Is just a leap of faith

Spread your arms and hold your breath

Always trust your cape.

I was reminded of my brother. My dad said he saw that same hopeful optimism in me too. The ride was one of the hardest things I’ve done. I wasn’t fast, but I was resilient and had tons of support. That experience showed me that my community was my cape. They made hard things possible.

And with that I’ll close with another Christopher Reeve quote, “hope often comes in the form of a friend.”

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Jennifer Cox, founder of COCO Strategies is a communications professional and leadership coach based in Western Canada. The best part of my work: helping others find their story and bringing that vision to life.