They say “Hope springs eternal” – or does it?

They say “Hope springs eternal” – or does it?

What do you hope for? “Hope springs eternal” is a popular saying which means hope is everlasting. But, is that true? With a tough last year, are people having trouble hanging on to hope? Now we try to look forward with hope to better times. We decided to look at the role hope plays in our life with whatever challenges we are facing.

We discovered research by Dr. Chan Hellman at the University of Oklahoma. He’s a Professor and Director of the Hope Research Center there. He said, “Hope is the belief that your future will be better than today and you have the power to make it so.”

It turns out that the effects of having hope can be measured. It shows that when people have hope it positively affects physical health, psychological well-being and social well-being, Well-being means more than reducing what’s wrong, it’s also the recognition of what’s right. Studies also show that when children have hope, they have better attendance, better grades and are more likely to go to college.

We wanted to know more about how to promote having hope and all the positive things that can come with it. Hope is not just a feeling. It goes beyond optimism. It’s a way of thinking. That’s good, because then we can work on changing and controlling our thinking.

With hope, there are 3 things that have to be present to control our thinking and make needed changes. Hellman says that “Imagination is the instrument of hope.” Yes, imagination is important and here’s a process to turn that imagination and hope into reality.

1. Identify goals. We have to know where we want to go, what we want to accomplish and the kind of person we want to be. Of course, we hope we’ll get there but we have to do more.
2. Make plans. Hellman calls these plans, “pathways” and that they are needed to reach our goals. There might be several ways to reach what we hope for but we have to decide the best routes.
3. Take action. To hope is wonderful but motivation is needed to take action. We also need perseverance to be able to keep going when we meet challenges.  Then we can make it to the goals we hope to achieve.

We found that trauma and adversity definitely affect hope. Dr. Hellman was actually homeless for a time when he was in high school, so he can speak from personal knowledge on adversity. This background probably helps him with understanding various populations and how they deal with hope.

It turns out that when people have been facing continual adversity and trauma, such as homelessness, they look at goals and life pathways differently. They will tend to use smaller, more immediate steps, rather than looking at the bigger picture. Sometimes the goals and decisions are the needs to get food or a safe place to sleep. They hope to avoid the negative that’s happening or could happen. It’s fear based. It may be harder for them to think of the bigger picture and how to get out of the situation they are in. Thus, they can feel stuck and victimized.

When people are living a life where everyday needs are met, they tend to look at the bigger picture. They realize they have more choices and they are not in survival mode. They may hope for more things and have more pathways available to them to reach their goals. They can make future-based goals to make their life better. We see how people’s hope, goals and pathways vary depending upon their situation.

You may remember Dick Beardsley, a world-class marathon runner from Minnesota, who faced many adversities in his life. These included a life-threatening farm accident, battling and beating an addiction to pain meds and losing his son to suicide. Some time ago, we were fortunate to interview him to find out how he maintained his resilience through these adversities. He credits having faith and hope. Beardsley said, “They say you can live forty days without food, seven days without water, a few minutes without breathing. But you can’t live one second without hope.”

What about you? What are you hoping for? If hope doesn’t seem like it’s “springing eternal” right now, we encourage you to use the ways suggested to rekindle hope. Identify goals, make plans to get there and then take persistent action. Also, along with hope, having faith and asking for help can make for a smoother journey to an even better life.

Chanhassen MN residents, Doug and Lynn Nodland are success coaches and owners of The Balance Center in Excelsior. Contact them at WeCare@SharingLifesLessons.com

© Doug and Lynn Nodland 2021 Articles and videos may be shared in their entirety with attribution.