It can sometimes feel like things constantly get in the way of our plans or goals. Perhaps there’s a job you dream of, but further study or money is an issue. Maybe there’s a competition you were destined to win, but ended up second place again. Or even a personal relationship you hope will get better, but seems the same as it was yesterday. It’s during these moments that we need a healthy dose of hope.
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If your hope is being tested, this article should help, so keep reading.
We’ll explore what hope looks like in action, how it feels and ways in which you can activate it to improve your chances of success.
What do we mean by hope?
Hope Theory, which was developed by Psychologist Charles Snyder consists of 2 fundamental elements. First, it’s belief in an ideal future with an optimistic mindset (agency). Hopeful people have positive expectations of achieving the goals they want. Second is being able to find multiple ways (pathways) in which to achieve those goals. There will always be things that try and stop us, but being able to overcome obstacles is crucial.
So what does hope feel like?
It can feel like having butterflies or the lift of your stomach on a rollercoaster ride. We might notice our hearts beating faster or a change in our breathing rhythm.
Hope can be measured on a scale of hope and fear. Psychologist Reece Coker believes that when we hope something will happen, we fear it won’t. And when we hope something won’t happen, we fear it will. When feeling hopeful, we can’t wait for something to happen, whereas when we feel fearful, we want to avoid it happening.
While we may feel momentary discomfort, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Our body has a primitive reaction to uncertainty in the future, but it doesn’t know whether it’s hope or fear that we’re experiencing. It’s our mind which makes that judgement. Though we may not be able to control our initial feelings of hope and fear, we can alter our mindset and the way we respond.
How you can be more hopeful
I invite you to try the following activities, as they have been proven to be effective and will help activate hope in your life. You may want to try journaling as it helps reorganise thoughts, make sense of them and separate them from emotions.
- List all of your past successes (marrying my amazing wife – passing a driving test – giving up smoking – donating blood – getting a promotion). Briefly look over this list when your motivation or willpower is fading. These will create a boost of positive emotions that help broaden our perspective to opportunities in our lives.
- Anticipate future obstacles and setbacks, as they are inevitable. If (x) happens, then I will (y). When you’ve already thought about how to respond, you will be less likely to react when your judgement is clouded by temporary emotions.
- Over 500 studies to date have demonstrated that the 24 VIA character strengths improve our well-being. We can use these to help see different perspectives (like camera lenses if you will). Simply ask what would (character strength) do in this situation? For instance, what would kindness do? What would creativity do? Imagine they are different cartoon characters if that helps.
- There are always alternative pathways. Think about what options you haven’t tried. If you haven’t found them, ask other people for their perspective.
There you have it. In just a few steps you can start feeling more hopeful in your life.
Read more about James McIntyre-Ure and his other articles HERE