HOLD ON!!!! HOPE WHISPERS!!!! HEY YOU ARE THE WINNER!!!!!

Hope is one of the most important mental traits in life. According to 20 years of scientific research conducted by positive psychology founder Martin Seligman, hope reduces feelings of helplessness, boosts happiness, reduces stress, and improves our quality of life. H opeful people are able to be positive alwys..

• Being hopeful and having faith that something good will definitely happen irrespective of the situation.
• Having a positive perspective towards life.
• Relaxed & Confident regarding the comfort level and state of mind.
• Thinks only about win-win situations.

Hope is defined as the perceived capability to derive pathways to desired goals, and motivate oneself via agency thinking to use those pathways. ... Processes that lessen hope in children and adults are reviewed. Using the hope theory definition, no evidence isfoundfor 'false " hope.

When you’re feeling stressed, depressed or overwhelmed, it’s hard to hold onto that feeling of hope. Feeling like there is no hope is one of the most challenging emotions to manage, especially when the feeling has been absent for a prolonged period of time. We’ve all had those moments when there didn’t appear to be a way out. During these periods, many who are hopeless wonder what the point of even trying is when you feel like there is no hope. Finding hope when it seems like there’s none to be found can be extremely difficult, but it is possible. Hope is there, we just need the courage and faith to walk through the wilderness and find our direction. If you’re ready to change your outlook on life and become a person of hope, here are seven steps that can see hope begin to overflow from within you.

Choose to hope.

Don’t ever be fooled. Hope is a choice. It’s always been a choice. You are not a slave to your personality. You are not a victim of your circumstances. You have the Spirit of the God who created the heavens and the earth living inside of you. You can choose to hope. I know it’s not as easy and simple choosing to hope. It’s a battle. But never ever forget: hope is a choice. If you’re a pessimist, it’s because you choose to be a pessimist. If you’re defeated, it’s because you chose to give up. And if you hope, it’s because you choose to get back up when you’re knocked down and believe in the God of Hope.

Inhale the Word.

The Word of God is given to us to teach us so that we might be encouraged and so that we might have hope. Breathing is about inhaling and exhaling. If you want to breathe hope, you have to start by inhaling the word, because the word gives you hope. Every morning when you get up, inhale the word. On the way to work, don’t get riled up by talk radio, listen to sermons of the many great preachers out there. Some of you need to go on a fast, cut out all tv, all social media, and just feast on the word until it gets into your pores. If you want to breathe hope, you always have to start with the word.

Hope is all around you.

Exhale contagious hope. When we inhale the word, use worship as a weapon, when we do life together and serve not sit, we breathe out a hope that can change lives. You can become a person full of hope and light if you try. Look for God in your daily life and let Him fill you with joy!Hope is all around you.

Exhale contagious hope. When we inhale the word, use worship as a weapon, when we do life together and serve not sit, we breathe out a hope that can change lives. You can become a person full of hope and light if you try. Look for God in your daily life and let Him fill you with joy!

A definition of hope 

To be hopeful is to look on the future positively, to see opportunity in challenges (rather than challenges in opportunities), to “look on the bright side of life.”

Hope is the ability to see the possible good in future events, especially when those events are potentially negative.

 

What hope is NOT: 

Hope is not blindly expecting every positive thing to fall into your lap, nor expecting yourself to magically avoid every potential danger. This mentality can lead to inadvertent self harm (for instance, not going to the doctor about a pain in your chest because you’re blindly optimistic everything will be okay could potentially lead to your death).

It’s this idea of “false hope” or “blind hope” that has given hope a bad name in recent years.

People often think that hopeful people are naive, even foolish, and that they believe good things will happen when in truth they never will.

Heck, many of my own friends think I am na?ve and foolish for pouring countless hours into this website in the hope that it might someday pay off big time. Is that smart hope or stupid hope?I It can be hard to tell.

 

 

Why hope is important in life

There’s a huge debate about what is better between realism, optimism and pessimism (read our article on why positivity makes you healthy).

Realism, optimism and pessimism all play an important role. And the debate is still undecided.

What we know for certain, however, is that hope benefits our health and happiness.

Psychological research proves that some attitudes are imperative in life.

For instance:

•  Compassion is one of the most important mental strengths. People with compassion are happier and healthier.
• Courage is important too.
• Then there’s forgiveness.
• And you wont believe the health benefits of kindness.
• But one of the most important strengths in life is hope.

 

Hope has been shown to:

• Make you wake up positive, ready for the day ahead.
• boost your immune system
• Improve general health
• Reduce stress
• Reduce joint pain (pessimism causes stress which makes us hold the body in the ways that produce pressure, worsening joint pain)
• improves respiration
• improves self worth
• Reduces anxiety
• improves emotional regulation
• Improve social relationships
• Motivate positive action that leads to real life success.
• Hope motivates positive actions that will lead to positive results
• Hope helps strengthen the immune system
• Hope improves social relationships (you’ll get more friend being an optimist)
• Hope makes you happy 
• Hope broadens and builds your mind

Of course, one of the main reasons why hope is important is that life is hard and will kick you in the butt if you let it.

We all face setbacks. We all wonder at times whether we’re going to get by. We all know what it’s like to feel like you’re right on the brink of disaster. And many of us knows what happens when we are not hopeful at such times.

 Research into the benefits of hope

Research proves how important hope is in life.

In one study, researchers looked into the affect that hope had on college students.

The research shows that hope is imperative to academic achievement. Students with high levels of hope are more likely to succeed at school, more likely to have high quality friendships, and less likely to suffer anxiety and depression. It’s easy to see why. When you are hopeful that hard work will pay off, you are more likely to go the extra mile to succeed. Hopeful students put more time into studies because they believe they can succeed. And because of this, they achieve higher results than students with low levels of hope.

Hope is the motivating factor.

When you do not believe your work will pay off (when you’re hopeless) you quite logically won’t try very hard. Imagine going to the gym every day genuinely believing that you would never get fit. What a downer. Now imagine that you’re going to get the toned body, you’re going to look and feel amazing. That hope would make you genuinely want to workout harder, and as a result you will be more likely to succeed in your goal.

The opposite of hope is hopelessness. And this is a serious threat to health and happiness.

 How my life turned awful when I lost hope

Hope is one of the best ways to stay positive in negative times.

I learned that the hard way.

The worst time in my life was during a period of my life while I was living in Canada, thousands of miles away from home with no family and very few friends there.

I went through a break-up. And I was rocked to the core.

I lost hope.

I thought it was the end. And because I did not have hope I suffered a lot, mentally. I went through depression. Fell to pieces.

For six months I was in utter despair. I was hopeless.

Maybe you’ve been through a similar time of hopelessness. And if so, I’m sure it affected you greatly.

Hope is like a safe-guard. It tells you, even when you’re going through hell, that there is that light at the end of the tunnel.

Winston Churchill said, “When you’re going through hell, keep going”. Hope gives you the strength to keep going.

 Hope gives you motivation

The most hopeful people in the world are also the most motivated.

If you were absolutely without hope, you wouldn’t bother to even attempt to do anything positive because… well, you’ll fail, right? So why would you even both? Why bother working hard when it won’t pay off? Why bother going to the gym when you’ll never be fit anyway. Why bother? Without hope it all seems so completely pointless. So you’ll never achieve anything.

Hope gives you the motivation. Hope is that voice inside that says, “Yes, you can.” And it’s that voice that makes you work hard, that makes you learn new things, that gives you the impetus to actually try. In Hope Theory, which is a psychological view of hope, it’s believed that when we are hopeful we are given the motivation to make positive choices and to take positive actions that will move us along the path to success. A lot of research backs this claim. But forget the science. We can all feel, inside, what it is like to be hopeful and why we need hope so much.

How Hopeful Are You? Take this test

Hope Theory was created by psychologist Richard Snyder (you can read more about Snyder’s hope theory on MindTools.com).Snyder devised a way to measure how much hope someone has. He called it the Hope Scale.

Take the test below to discover your level of hope and optimism.

(Text version of test)

Answer these questions from 1 to 8. 1 is for “absolutely false”. 8 is for “absolutely true”.

I can think of many ways to get out of a jam.

___ 2. I energetically pursue my goals.

___ 3. I feel tired most of the time.

___ 4. There are lots of ways around any problem.

___ 5. I am easily downed in an argument.

___ 6. I can think of many ways to get the things in life that are important to me.

___ 7. I worry about my health.

___ 8. Even when others get discouraged, I know I can find a way to solve the problem.

___ 9. My past experiences have prepared me well for my future.

___10. I’ve been pretty successful in life.

___11. I usually find myself worrying about something.

___12. I meet the goals that I set for myself.

Scoring:

• Add-up your scores for questions 1,2,3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 12.
• Subtract your responses to questions 7 and 11
• Total is out of 80. 0 = Totally without hope. 80 = Very hopeful
• Items 2, 9, 10, and 12 make up the agency subscale. These are about believing in where you’ve been and where you’re going.
• Items 1, 4, 6, and 8 make up the pathway subscale. These questions are about being able to see ways to success, or ways to avoid failure.

This test will tell you how hopeful you are, but it will also tell you where you need improvement.

For instance, lots of people meet the goals that they set themselves (question 12) but don’t energetically pursue their goals. If this is you it could be a sign that you are not setting high enough goals (because you’re achieving your goals without the need to energetically pursue them). Or you might find that you worry about your health (7), and other general worries (11) and you don’t believe you are well prepared for the future (9). This is a classic sign of pessimism, so you might like to take some progressive steps to be more hopeful and less pessimistic.

 How important is hope compared to other mental traits?

Okay. So we know that hope is important. But is hope as important as other mental traits? For instance, spirituality is important in life. Is hope more or less important than spirituality? What about sense of humor? That’s important too. Perseverance is very important. And Fairness.. I could go on.

How does hope compare to these other mental traits?

Well we know that hope is more important than self-efficacy (your belief in your own ability) and optimism. We know that because psychologists ? Philip R. Magaletta and J.M. Oliver measured the affects of both and compared them. And they determined that hope was by far the most important of those three.

But hope might not be as important as some other character strengths. One study shows that when it comes to well-being, gratitude and love of learning are most important. And another fascinating study showed that if you want to be in the military the most important character strengths are Leadership, Teamwork, and Open-Mindedness.

How to be more hopeful

Be Mindful of your Expectations 

Whether you are an optimist or a devout pessimist you will have certain expectations of the future. To begin developing your hope, become aware of the fact that you CHOOSE the way you view the future. You can look on the bright side or the dark side. You can choose to be hopeful. Find the opportunities where you can turn pessimism to optimism. 

 

Challenge Pessimism 

Pessimists tend to think that looking on the negative side of things is being “realistic.” Somehow, it seems more realistic that things will turn out bad, but in reality there’s no more self deception in looking on the bright side than the dark side. Think of something you feel pessimistic about. Whatever your subject is, you will know certain facts about it and have some uncertainties. Now consider how you are using those facts and uncertainties to falsely create a negative and how you could instead use them to create a positive.

 

Understand what causes your pessimism

Continuing from the above; there will be a reason why you are choosing to be pessimistic at times. More often than not it’s because you are afraid to look positively at something and end up being hurt.

To counteract this, tell yourself that even if you do end up disappointed you will then turn that disappointment to a positive. To illustrate this: imagine you’re awaiting your university degree exam results. You know you could pass, you know you could fail, but you’re going to choose to believe that you’ve failed simply to save yourself from disappointment (this is the pessimistic outlook). You can, however, look optimistically and still avoid disappointment. To do so, realise that you’ll likely pass the exam (optimism) but that even if you don’t you will turn failure to a positive, for instance by learning lessons from the experience that strengthen your character and set you up for future success (optimism that safeguards you from disappointment).

 Conclusion

Hope is incredibly important in life for health, happiness, and for success.

The research shows that optimistic people are more likely to live fulfilling lives and to  enjoy life. Plus, by relieving stress, hope helps to reduce the risk of many of the leading causes of death (high blood pressure, heart attack). Optimism is a key to success. It gives meaning to our life. Optimism, on the one hand, allowing one to have an optimistic outlook on life, lets a person gain confidence. On the other hand, it brings positive change to one's mind, so that he can overcome his own problems successfully.

Optimists may indeed be:

More resilient

Do optimists bounce back from painful experiences faster than pessimists do? "Yes," says Carver. "They stay in the struggle because they expect the ship to right itself." Therefore, it makes sense that optimists are also...

Less likely to quit

Optimists' hopeful attitude helps them persevere in the face of difficulties, sure that things will come out OK in the long run. But they're also adaptable. Says Carver: "They turn to something else when it is clear [their current track] won't work."

More likely to exercise

"Optimists are more proactive about doing a variety of things that are health-promoting," says Carver. However, he acknowledges that there may be some "two-way causality" at play here: Are optimists upbeat because they work out more (all that mood-boosting serotonin!), or do they work out more because they're upbeat? It's a bit of a which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg situation.

Quicker to forgive

"There is some evidence that [optimists] are more forgiving," notes Carver. "Or perhaps [they] look on the best side of what they are being presented with." Instead of taking slights personally, for example, they may look at other possible causes of the hurtful behavior—then take a more empathetic, bigger-picture view.

Less obsessive

According to Carver, optimists are less apt to fixate on nonproductive thought patterns. Not surprisingly, "they're certainly less likely to dwell on the negative," he says. Other research has noted that optimists have "positive expectancies" that can contribute to emotional well-being. On a related note, the fact that they're less likely to stew in their own negative juices means that optimists are also...

 Less stressed

Research has shown that optimists have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol—thanks in part to the fact that they aren't worrywarts. "Given the same stressor, they are less aversively reactive to it [than pessimists are]," observes Carver. That means optimists also tend to be...

Sounder sleepers

Lack of worry means optimists don't lie awake all night suffering from so-called "monkey brain" syndrome—they're not tossing and turning and fretting until the wee hours. That could explain why, as research has found, insomniacs score lower on optimism, compared with people who regularly get 7 to 8 hours of shut-eye each night. "If you realize that pessimism incorporates a lot of [nightly] rumination about how bad things are, it makes good sense," says Carver. (Not a great sleeper? Here are 20 ways to sleep better every night.)

More grateful

A 2010 study on the benefits of appreciation found that "one's disposition to experience gratitude is positively related to optimism." Optimists' glass-half-full mentality leads them to count their blessings and appreciate what they have. One of the nice side effects of that thankful attitude? It makes optimists...

 More altruistic

In 2005, Dennis Charney, MD, dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, coauthored a study of about 750 Vietnam vets—former POWs who had never developed depression or PTSD—and found that two of the men's most predominant psychological characteristics were optimism and altruism. "It probably takes a certain amount of optimism to be charitable at all," notes Carver. "Why do it, if it's not going to somehow make the world better? ... [Optimists] expect good deeds to have good repercussions in the world." And that should be welcome news for all you pessimists out there who could really use a hand.

The Will and Ways of Hope

Hope allows people to approach problems with a mindset and strategy-set suitable to success, thereby increasing the chances they will actually accomplish their goals. ... Hope-related cognitions are important. Hope leads to learning goals, which are conducive to growth and improvement.

Talent, skill, ability—whatever you want to call it—will not get you there. Sure, it helps. But a wealth of psychological research over the past few decades show loud and clear that it’s the psychological vehicles that really get you there. You can have the best engine in the world, but if you can’t be bothered to drive it, you won’t get anywhere.

Psychologists have proposed lots of different vehicles over the years. Grit, Conscientiousness, self-efficacy, optimism, passion, inspiration, etc. They are all important. One vehicle, however, is particularly undervalued and underappreciated in psychology and society. That’s hope.

Hope often gets a bad rap. For some, it conjures up images of a blissfully na?ve chump pushing up against a wall with a big smile. That’s a shame. Cutting-edge science shows that hope, at least as defined by psychologists, matters a lot.

Hope is not a brand new concept in psychology. In 1991, the eminent positive psychologist Charles R. Snyder (link is external) and his colleagues came up with Hope Theory (link is external). According to their theory, hope consists of agency and pathways. The person who has hope has the will and determination that goals will be achieved, and a set of different strategies at their disposal to reach their goals. Put simply: hope involves the will to get there, and different ways to get there.

Why is hope important? Well, life is difficult. There are many obstacles. Having goals is not enough. One has to keep getting closer to those goals, amidst all the inevitable twists and turns of life. Hope allows people to approach problems with a mindset and strategy-set suitable to success, thereby increasing the chances they will actually accomplish their goals.

Hope is not just a feel-good emotion, but a dynamic cognitive motivational system. Under this conceptualization of hope, emotions follow cognitions, not the other way round. Hope-related cognitions are important. Hope leads to learning goals, which are conducive to growth and improvement. People with learning goals are actively engaged in their learning, constantly planning strategies to meet their goals, and monitoring their progress to stay on track. A bulk of research shows that learning goals are positively related to success across a wide swatch of human life—from academic achievement to sports to arts to science to business.

Those lacking hope, on the other hand, tend to adopt mastery goals. People with mastery goals choose easy tasks that don’t offer a challenge or opportunity for growth. When they fail, they quit. People with mastery goals act helpless, and feel a lack of control over their environment. They don’t believe in their capacity to obtain the kind of future they want. They have no hope.

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Science is on the side of hope. Snyder and his colleagues came up with a way of measuring hope, both as a stable trait of an individual and as a state one can be in anytime. The Hope Scale, which has been translated into more than 20 languages, includes items relating to agency (e.g., “I energetically pursue my goals”), and pathways (e.g., “There are lots of ways around any problem”).

Whether measured as a trait or a sate, hope is related to positive outcomes. In one study (link is external), researchers looked at the impact of hope on college academic achievement over the course of 6 years. Hope was related to a higher GPA 6 years later, even after taking into account the original GPA and ACT entrance examination scores of the participants. High hope students (relative to low hope students) were also more likely to have graduated and were less likely to be dismissed from school due to bad grades.

Situational hope,

but not dispositional hope, was related to divergent thinking. In her study, participants who were instructed to think hopefully were better at making remote associations, generated a higher quanitity of ideas, and added more details to their ideas, compared to those who weren't instructed to think hopefully. This link between hope and divergent thinking makes sense, considering divergent thinkers are good at coming up with lots of different ideas and hope involves coming up with a number of diferent strategies for obtaining a goal. In terms of practical implications, Go?rres notes:

"It seems that performance can be enhanced in the short term by reminding people that they have the motivation and the means to pursue a goal. This “situational hope” could potentially be useful in the future as a means of short-term intervention to enhance performance. By reminding people before tests or situations in which performance and achievement are required that they have the will and the ways to do well, possible potential can be better utilized."

In another recent study researchers looked at the role of hope among athletes. Athletes had higher levels of hope than non-athletes. Hope also predicted semester GPA over overall GPA and overall self-worth. Among female cross-country athletes in particular, the state of having hope predicted athletic outcomes beyond training, self-esteem, confidence, and mood.

Hope can be distinguished from other psychological vehicles, such as self-efficacy and optimism. Self-efficacy refers to your belief that you can master a domain. Optimism refers to a general expectation that it’ll all just ‘be alright’. Hope, self-efficacy, and optimism are all incredibly important expectancies and contribute to the attainment of goals. Even though they all involve expectations about the future, they are subtly, and importantly, different from each other. People with self-efficacy expect that they will master a domain. Optimism involves a positive expectancy for future outcomes without regard for one’s personal control over the outcome. In contrast to both self-efficacy and optimism, people with hope have both the will and the pathways and strategies necessary to achieve their goals.

We like to think that current ability is the best predictor of future success. We’ve built up the importance of existing ability because the testing and gating mechanisms are so well established to suit this belief. Important psychological studies show that ability is important, but it’s the vehicles that actually get people where they want to go. Oftentimes, the vehicles even help you build up that ability you never thought you had. And hope—with its will and ways—is one of the most important vehicles of them all.