How to Become More Hopeful About Your Life

“Hope” is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul – And sings the tune without the words – And never stops – at all –

Emily Dickinson

As human beings, we typically believe that we need just three things to survive: food, clothing and shelter.  And we do need those things!  But to survive, we also need one other very important thing: Hope. 

To flourish in life, we need to be hopeful that we can succeed in reaching our goals.  That we can live in safety.  That we can have good relationships with others.  And that we have the ability to generally improve our lives.  So, learning how to be hopeful is a critical life skill.

Realize that being hopeful requires you to believe, often against all reason, that you aren’t stuck where you are.  Now, it may take some finagling to get where you want to be.  But if you are hopeful, you believe that you can do it.

For example, many years ago, my life was not going well.  I was in a failing marriage.  Worse yet, I was living overseas and didn’t have proper employment.  To any onlooker, my life would have seemed pretty grim!

Now, I could have crumpled and believed that my situation was hopeless.  But I’m a hopeful person.  And I’ve always believed that I have the power to improve my life.  And in this instance, I did!  It took some time, but I ended up returning to my home country.  I then landed a great job and got married to a terrific second husband.  That is the power of Hope. 

Hope is what gets you from Point A to Point B.  It’s the thing that moves you forward, even when everyone tells you that you are stuck where you are.  What I can tell you for sure is this: If you have hope, a solid work ethic and some gumption, you can accomplish a lot in life.

Below are ways to become a more hopeful person.  Adopt these approaches and tap into the power of Hope!

Understand That Life Has Seasons

Part of being hopeful is realizing that life has its seasons.  And as the seasons come and go, the difficulties that you may be facing now aren’t going to last forever.  Of course, when I was young, it was hard for me to understand that.  However, I’ve now lived enough years to know that life simply ebbs and flows. 

What I can tell you is that we all go through periods in life that are hard.  During those periods, our circumstances are challenging, and our mental fortitude is tested.  And then we have periods during which life flows easily.

For instance, during the past two years, I was in a challenging period of my life.  My mother was elderly and had many health issues.  I had to make frequent emergency trips to assist her with one issue or another.  Sadly, despite my best efforts to ensure that she received top quality care, she passed away.  I now look back on the experience and wonder how I managed it all. 

These days, my life is a lot quieter.  I no longer am managing my mother’s health issues.  My daughter is away at college, working hard and doing beautifully.  And my husband is busy with a demanding job that he loves.  So, my life has slowed down.

And that’s how life is.  There are seasons.  Some seasons test us in every way imaginable.  Our stamina, patience and mental strength may be tested to their limits.  And then, some seasons are calmer, and we just putter along. 

So, part of being hopeful is understanding that life has its seasons.  If you currently are going through a difficult season, realize that as in nature, this season will not last forever.  Life naturally changes.  We will have both easier and harder times in life.  Your easier time is on its way.  Just keep working hard, doing your best, and being patient. (To read more about embracing the seasons of life, click here.)

Take Daily Actions to Make Your Life Better than It Was Yesterday

Sometimes we feel hopeless because we mistakenly believe that we are stuck in our circumstances.  We forget that we have the power to make our lives better.  So, to start feeling hopeful, it helps to take daily actions to improve your life.  In doing so, you remind yourself that you have the power to make your life a little bit better each day.

A good approach is to pick a specific area of your life to work on every day.  It helps to choose an area in which you will get a guaranteed return on your efforts.  For instance, you might decide to take daily steps to improve your health.  The good news is that you have the power to improve your health.  Simply by eating healthier foods, giving up alcohol and nicotine, and exercising (if you are able) on a daily basis, you will become a healthier, more physically fit person. 

Another good improvement area to tackle is your home.  You might decide that you want to organize and improve the appearance of your home.  I guarantee that if you do a little bit every day to clean, tidy and organize your home, you’ll see significant improvement over time. 

The key is to do something (anything!) each day to make your life a little bit better.  If you do so, you’ll naturally become more hopeful about your life and the future.  That’s because you’ll have proven to yourself that you have the power to improve your life with daily effort!

Spend Time with Hopeful People

Unfortunately, there are lots of folks in this world who just aren’t hopeful.  These people may be in your family, or they may be among your friends.  They are the naysayers in your life.  So, if you say to them, “Well, I’d like to do X as a career,” they’ll tell you, “Oh dear.  That’s very hard.  Not many people are able to do X.  You really should try to do something more realistic.” 

They’re the kind of people who kill dreams and who want to keep everyone where they are – in mediocrity.  And if you spend too much time with these folks, you’ll end up in mediocrity with them!

So, choose to surround yourself with hopeful people.  For instance, I try to be a very hopeful cheerleader for my daughter.  If she has an aspiration, without hesitation, I tell her to go for it.  She has an incredible work ethic and more gumption than anyone I’ve ever known.  She has the ability to accomplish anything that she sets her mind to, and I regularly tell her that! 

There is a wonderful saying from Norman Vincent Peale: “Shoot for the moon.  Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”  That quote is the epitome of what it means to be hopeful.  So, spend your time with people who want you to shoot for the moon!

Focus on What’s Going Well

It can be challenging to be hopeful when everything in life seems to be going wrong.  But the reality is that it’s rare for everything to be going wrong.  Typically, you’ll have one big problem.  And that one big problem will seem to overshadow all the good things that are going on in your life.

So, the key to being hopeful is to realize that your big problem is like a piece of trash floating around in the sea of all the good things in your life.  Yes, it’s distasteful to have a big piece of garbage floating around in your otherwise tranquil waters.  But it will wash away eventually!

So, when you have a big problem, treat it like a piece of garbage.  It’s a nuisance, but it isn’t your whole life.  For instance, you may say, “Well, my bad relationship is a nuisance, but my life is so much more than this relationship.”  Or, if your job is irritating, you may say, “Well, my job isn’t rewarding, but I have so much more going on in my life than this job!”  And if you have a financial concern, you might say to yourself, “Yes, financial issues are stressful.  But they also are resolvable, and I have so many other blessings to appreciate.”

When you put your “big” problem in perspective, you realize that your life is full of blessings.  The key to being hopeful is to shift your focus to all the good in your life, and realize that your one big problem just isn’t so big.

If you want to be more hopeful about your life, consider following the approaches above.  Realize that we each have the power to continually improve our lives until our last breath.  So, be hopeful and keep working to improve your life every day. (To read about having a positive outlook, even when life is hard, click here.)