Shane Lopez, who has studied hope extensively both as an academic and as a senior scientist at Gallup, defines hope as “the belief that the future will be better than the present, coupled with the belief that you have the power to make it so.” It is this combination of optimism and personal agency that differentiates hope from its lesser cousins like bravado or wishful thinking. It begins with understanding the nature of hope. The good news is that you can take actions to sustain hope and achieve the many documented benefits hopefulness confers. With a pandemic heading into its third year, the ongoing war in Ukraine, the almost daily evidence of impending climate disaster, global supply chain disruption, and inflation, among other woes, sustaining hope has become more important than ever. We need it in our jobs as well as in our personal lives. It’s essential because when hope is lost, so, too, is our will to endure and ultimately prevail. It’s tough because it requires a delicate balance of accepting that we cannot know the future, while believing things will be better than the present. When things look bleak, remaining hopeful is one of our toughest and most essential self-management tasks. And yet, hope is essential to our satisfaction, motivation, health, and performance. In times of great turbulence, hope can feel naïve - or worse, like a set-up for future disappointment. Hope is crucial for human flourishing but is a subject rarely addressed in business until the pandemic made it unavoidable.
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