The Importance of Hope

Reviewed Content on April 11, 2024

The Science of Hope is guiding Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS), including Child Support Services (CSS) in interactions with co-workers, individual plans for promotions or professional growth, and in customer interactions.

Following the steps set out in Gwinn and Hellman’s book, Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life we can change achieve our life goals, help instill a sense of optimism and confidence in others and feel better about what we are doing in our personal and professional lives. The authors present scenarios of people who you would think because of their life circumstances would be discouraged, depressed, without optimism, but instead are full of hope and looking forward to a better life.

This brings us to the definition of hope. Let’s first say hope is not wishful thinking, like saying “I hope I win the lottery,” or “I hope it doesn’t rain today,” or “I hope I can lose 50 pounds in two weeks.” These thoughts or comments are more like wishing for things, a way of thinking left over from our childhoods when things were not always in our control.

Today, as adults, we are in control of our futures, and Gwinn and Hellman propose how to think and act to bring about our desired goals.

In other words, psychologically speaking, hope is forward looking, optimistic, and invloves having a goal and a pathway to reach that goal. An important aspect of the Science of Hope is the pathway to reaching our desired goal is measurable, and that means it is a way we can know where we are in our journey to achieving our goal. Arizona State University associate director of research in the Hope Center and clinical assistant professor Crystal Bryce says that “Hopeful people are able to set goals, identify ways to reach their goals and feel as though they can do the work to achieve those goals.” Added to that are executive director of the Hope Center John Parsi’s comments about Hope pathways. He says when there are obstacles that interfere with one part of the goal pathway individuals recognize the obstacle and find other ways around them to get to their goal, not unlike taking a detour on a route to reach a planned destination.

Hope in general means a desire for things to change for the better, and to plan ways to reach that better situation, and to take action to achieve the better situation.

Hope is all around us

Hope is a part of everyone’s life. Everyone hopes for something. It’s an inherent part of being a human being. Hope helps us define what we want in our futures and is part of the self-narrative about our lives we all have running inside our minds.

Why Hope?

Because hope is scientifically defined as the belief that the future will be better and we have the power to make it so, and is based on the three main ideas of desirable goals, pathways to goal attainment, and agency to pursue those pathways, hope rises us up, and helps to keep us alive and willing to keep on going in difficult circumstances .

Most people associate hope with a dire situation. People hope to get out of difficult circumstances. That is often when people do find themselves hoping fervently! But hope also can provide the key to making everyday life better. According to Psychology Today, that’s because just envisioning something hopeful gives a person a moment of happiness. It can make present difficulties much easier to bear.

Because we set goals that ultimately make our lives better, hope can motivate us. An example is of the young man in Gwinn and Hellman’s book who was homeless and living under a bridge, but who was attending college courses and had a plan for how he was going to achieve his plan for his future.

Hope is a lit match in a dark tunnel

Having hope is important to the very act of being a human being. As Dr. Judith Rich, author and life coach, writes, “Hope is a lit match in a dark tunnel, a moment of light, just enough to reveal the patch ahead and ultimately the way out.”

Hope is not an either/or proposition, where in believing that all despair must be extinguished. It is true that hope comes and goes, and there are times when we feel like all hope is diminished, but by applying the science of hope in our lives, we can trust that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Hope shows the way, and we act on it. We maintain our sense of hopefulness even when obstacles get in our way, or we become exhausted or just plain tired. Even then, hope does not die, because we have our plan for our lives, we have goals that will materialize as we follow our pathway.

Hope is a framework for action

Hope is more than just a state of mind; it is an action-oriented strength. In the presence of this inner resource, we find the motivation to pursue our goals and the resilience to pick ourselves up when things go wrong.

The following quotes will help inspire you to continue to go forward with your hope plan:

“We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32^nd U.S. President, from 1933-1945

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” – Albert Einstein, Theoretical Physicist

“Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.” – Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk

“Our human compassion binds us the one to the other – not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.” – Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa.

Hope can be taught

Gwinn and Hellman say, “hope is about building goals and helping people navigate pathways.” Hope is a framework for action to achieve our desired goals, and achieving those goals affects how hopeful we are and our overall wellbeing. This wellbeing is the outcome of the Science of Hope.

Hope can be taught, and it can be built upon. When customers or staff behave with anger, frustration, or disengagement, seek first to understand and show empathy. Help them to understand that the future can and will be better than today.

We make change happen from our sense of hope. Continue to focus on future-oriented thinking, setting and seeking valued goals, and managing motivation and willpower to achieve those goals.

Will we achieve all of our goals? Maybe not, but we can believe we can. And we can hold that hope in our hearts and work toward it. Work for it every day right where you are. Hope will not fade if we keep working toward our goals, even when we falter.

Sources:

• https://research.asu.edu/science-hope-more-wishful-thinking
• https;//soonermag.oufoundation.org/stories/the-science-of-hope
• https://www.ou.edu/tulsa/hope
• https://hopegrows.net/news/why-is-hope-so-important
• https://www.shutterfly.com/ideas/hope-quotes