How to Build Resilience by Learning to Hope (original) (raw)

The capacity to hope is a powerful predictor of wellbeing. Scientific research shows that hope improves emotional regulation, pain tolerance, coping strategies, and self-esteem. It reduces depression and anxiety, and it can shape positive outcomes.

What is Hope, Exactly?

Hope is believing that a positive future is possible and trusting in your ability to achieve it. Hope provides a structured approach for setting goals and taking steps to achieve the future you desire, rather than simply contemplating it.

Experiencing hard times reduces an individual’s capacity for hope, but here’s the good part: Hope itself is a protective factor against adversity. Also, hope and resilience can be nurtured, taught, and restored.

Hope comprises three parts:

• Goals (short- and long-term) are the cornerstone of hope.
• Pathways emerge, identifying routes towards goals and illuminating solutions around obstacles. This is the strategic aspect of hope.
• Agency, or willpower, is the ability to sustain motivation to move through pathways and meet goals, especially during hard times.

[Read: The Mystery of ADHD Motivation, Solved]

Hope can be taught in incremental steps. You can expand your capacity for hope and strive for a better future, even in the face of apathy and despair.

• Develop and clarify your goals. Define relevant and clear goals to increase your sense of agency. What future do you want for your relationships, career, health, and so on? Consider whether your goals are avoidant- or achievement-oriented. Are you setting goals for what you do not want to occur? Are your goals driven by anxiety or fear of the future? While it’s natural for some goals to stem from avoidance, you want most of your goals to be aspirational.
• Define and refine pathways. Consider viable routes and potential barriers to achieving your goals. Challenge yourself to find solutions to obstacles as they appear. Think about what’s in your power to change. Remember that setting different goals is always an option.
• What motivates you? Identify and describe what fuels your willpower. Use the following strategies to help sustain attention and build willpower as you move toward your goals:

[Read: Intention Deficit Disorder – Why ADHD Minds Struggle to Meet Goals]

• Call on your imagination. Envisioning a successful future helps to stoke willpower.
• Practice mindfulness. Just as stress and anxiety can deplete willpower, mindfulness and breathing exercises can help settle your thoughts so you can dedicate more energy to your goals.
• Create a hope map. Develop a visual reminder of your goals, pathways, and motivations.
• Ask for help. Look for support from friends, family, colleagues, coaches, and other positive influences in your life.

Why Is Hope Important Now?

What happens when the issues we face seem beyond our control? The last several years have brought a deadly pandemic, a deepening political divide, global conflict, and climate changes that produced life-threatening weather patterns. In the midst of such adversity, it is easy to slip into despair.

In these moments, hope is not the light at the end of the tunnel; hope is the light we need in the tunnel. During times of extreme hardship, we keep our focus on very short-term (perhaps daily) goals, where we have some degree of control in our pathways.

Brené Brown recently referred to these as microdoses of hope. Focus on the priority areas of your life: family, work, leisure, and community. Our research shows that short-term, specific goals are a better protector of hope and predictor of goal achievement during times of adversity. Once you identify a short-term goal, take a moment and think about a time when you achieved something that made you proud. What barriers did you face and how did you overcome them? Remember, you have done hard things.

Hope begets hope. Making progress toward your goals will increase your confidence and belief that the future is yours for the taking.

Building Hope and Resilience: Next Steps

• Watch: “The Science and Power of Hope”
• Read: The Color of Hope
• Learn: Building Resilience Begins Here – Motivation Strategies for ADHD Families
• Read: “I’m Resilient, Strong, and Proud. Thank You, ADHD.”

Chan M. Hellman, Ph.D., is a professor at the University of Oklahoma and director of The Hope Research Center. His research focuses on helping children and adults overcome trauma and adversity.

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