Somewhere between hope and fear

The winter season has arrived and it’s almost Christmas. A time of reflection, a time of hope. Also the time I finished reading Brene Brown’s Daring Greatly. Which gave me a lot of personal insights and hope for the future. Thus made me feel like sharing a bit with you.

In organizational change literature it often comes down to transforming somewhere between hope and fear. People stuck in their own behavioral patterns with a fear to change. Or hoping for something better, a feeling of possibility. But what does hope mean exactly?

Hope is often perceived as an emotion. Brene Brown thought so, I thought so too. What I learned from Daring Greatly is: hope is not an emotion. It’s a way of thinking or a cognitive process. Research of C.R. Snyder on hope shows that emotions play a supporting role, but hope is really a thought process made of goals, pathway and agency.

People with a growth mindset will probably recognize this. Simply put, hope is the result of:

• The ability to set realistic goals;
• The ability to figure out how to achieve those goals, including responding to adversity and being flexible enough to develop alternative routes;
• Believing in yourself.

And the best thing about this: hope is learned. You can practice hope by setting goals, have the perseverance to pursue them and have a positive mindset and believe in yourself. If this isn’t a beautiful new year’s resolution, I don’t know what is.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and successful new year!

Curious to read more? You can find the book here. Or visit https://brenebrown.com/ or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_R._Snyder to find out more.