16 Jan Happiness and hope
As those of you familiar with my happiness writings and happiness philosophy will no doubt know, optimistic thinking is a vitally important contributor to happiness. Within the realm of optimism, or maybe one could say related to optimism, is another concept often referred to as “hope”. I hope you enjoy the following happiness and hope article from Positive Psychology News Daily…
Positive Psychology News Daily
Restoring Hope
Posted: 15 Jan 2008 06:24 AM CST
As I meet with individuals and couples, either in my role as a church leader or in my role as the Human Resources officer for my employer, I often find people who have lost hope. They have lost hope in their careers, they have lost hope in their relationships, and they have lost hope in their personal and life goals. As I talk to these people and look for some way to help, I am reminded again and again of Rick Snyder and his Hope Theory.
In its simplest form Dr. Snyder taught that hope consisted of three elements illustrated in the diagram below from his book: Handbook of Hope (p. 10).
A > B
The person (A) perceives himself as being capable of producing a route or a pathway (the arrow) to a desired goal (B).
According to Dr. Snyder all three elements are necessary for people to maintain a hopeful position in life. To have hope we need to have a goal, we need to believe we can attain the goal, and we need to see a way – a pathway – to attain it.
It occurred to me that this simple model and theory is one way I can both identify what’s holding people back and then recommend ways to help them regain the hope they have lost. For example, I met with a young woman whose life had taken a very difficult turn. She was devastated and hopeless. I remember telling her that I was confident that she would be happy again and that her future could be very bright. I also remember that she looked at me with a look of profound disbelief. While I think she desparately wanted to be happy again, she didn”t believe she could attain it and certainly could not see any pathways to get her there. Over the weeks and months that we met she began to see options for moving forward. She identified her strengths and interests and pursued them. She began to cultivate a vision of her future. As she did this, her confidence also grew and I could see the elements of hope return and work together. The change in her was obvious – even in the way she walked. It was truly inspiring to watch hope return to my friend’s life.
I discovered that if we could help people identify which of the three elements of Dr. Snyder’s hope theory were missing, we could then identify remedies to get back on track. Some people have no goals. Some people have no confidence or motivation. Others may have goals and confidence, but can”t quite figure out where to take the first step.
Positive Psychology offers various exercises and interventions to help extablish (or re-establish) these hope elements. I like to ask people to do the “Best Future Self” exercise to help them gain a renewed vision of their potential thereby increasing confidence in their ability to achieve their goals. I use the simple ‘sMART” model of goal-setting to help people set realisitc goals that are attainable and motivating. I like to use simple brainstorming or “mind-mapping” techniques to help people create multiple options and pathways to bridge their motivation with their goals. Sonja Lyubomirsky just published a book called, “The How of Happiness” which contains multiple exercises that can also be applied here.
It’s hard to imagine anyone being truly happy without also being hopeful. It’s hard to imagine anyone who is truly hopeful without also being happy. I think they are inseparably connected. I have found that Dr. Snyder’s theory and model of hope provides a wonderful framework to ensure that we are applying the most appropriate positive interventions to help those we care about
References:
Snyder, C. R., (2000), Handbook of Hope – Theory, Measures, and Applications, Academic Press, San Diego, CA.
Lyubomirsky, S., (2008), The How of Happiness, A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life you Want, The Penguin Press, New York, NY.