Is your glass half full…or half empty?
Do your friends and family express words of hope…or hopelessness?
Do you look on the bright side of life…or the other side?
According to Shane Lopez, PhD—a Gallup Senior Scientist and Research Director for the Clifton Strengths Institute, as well as the world’s leading researcher on hope—hopeful people are 14% more productive in the workplace and high-hope students “make about a grade higher than low-hope people of equal intellect.”
In his book, Making Hope Happen: Create the Future You Want for Yourself and Others (Atria Books), Lopez says that we do not have an infinite supply of hope at our disposal. Each day, we have a set amount of hope to be aimed at the things that matter most in our lives.
Through research and studies on hope, Lopez discovered two strategies for living a hope-filled life:
- Spend time with the most hopeful person in your life. Hope is contagious and spreads to family, friends, workplace, and the community. Social contagion can be very powerful.
- Edit your life. Spend time and energy on the one or two life goals that really matter to you. Lopez discovered that a good job and a happy family are the two goals most desired by individuals. “Spend your time in a way that’s energizing, and spend it with people you love.”
Life is difficult. Life is challenging. Life is fragile. Life is imperfect. AND life can be filled with hope.
Open your heart to the possibility.
Here’s to HOPE!
