In this article on “Cultivating Resilience” – the third in the series – I focus on how hope is a major aspect of being resilient. In today’s society, it’s easy to feel hopeless. We know we can’t control what’s going on around us, nor what our loved ones choose to do or be, but we can cultivate resilience by focusing on hope.
Hope has been defined as, “the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best”. The most successful people are ones who have hope and don’t give in to despair. One of those is Nelson Mandela, who said:
I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being an optimist is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward.
We choose to be optimistic or pessimistic, just as we decide whether the glass is half full or half empty. It’s our perspective. A person who chooses to be optimistic has hope, by definition. I remember deciding when I was a teenager that I would take a pessimistic view of life because that way I wouldn’t be disappointed. That didn’t last long, though, because seeing the world that way wasn’t very much fun. In fact, it was downright depressing!
Being an optimist – having hope – is not turning a blind eye toward what is going on around us. It is, rather, acknowledging the present situation, but not giving up nor giving in to the notion that it will always be that way. Which are you? Optimist or pessimist? Do you have hope that things will get better?
If you have hope, you are capable of great things. If you do not have hope, then the great things you could have may never come along. According to psychologist Charles R. Snyder, hopeful thinking is made up of three main things:
- Goals – Approaching life in a goal-oriented way
- Pathways – Finding different ways to achieve your goals
- Agency – Believing that you can instigate change and achieve these goals
If we have a goal and we don’t give up, we will find the way(s) to achieve our goal. In order to persist in reaching our goal, we must believe that we are powerful enough to create change. And the magic potion is believing we have already reached the goal – whether we have or not – and living our lives at the same frequency as the goal itself.
The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.”
~ Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams