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Making hope happen “Hope is created moment by moment through our deliberate choices. It happens when we use our thoughts and feelings to temper our aversion to loss and actively pursue what is possible. When we choose hope, we define what matters to us most,” says Dr. Shane J. Lopez , one of the world-leading authorities on the psychology of hope and author of the successful book Making Hope Happen. His message is clear: Hope matters. Hope is a choice. Hope can be learned. Hope is contagious. To attain hope, you need to create momentum. It’s helpful to name the core beliefs that support the how of hope, but it’s even more important to know how they work together. So I’d like to offer another way, first proposed by Rick Snyder, to understand hope in action. It combines the beliefs into a three-part process that carries us to a better future. It also describes each element of the process as a set of learnable skills. Here are the three parts: 1. Goals. We seek out and identify an idea of where we want to go, what we want to

accomplish, who we want to be – whether tomorrow or over a lifetime. Some goals are vague or fleeting, and quickly forgotten. Others are actively shaped and modified over time. Hope is built from the goals that matter most to us, that we come back to again and again, and that fill our minds with pictures of the future. 2. Agency. The word agency is shorthand for our perceived ability to shape our lives day to day. As “agents” we know we can make things happen (or stop them from happening), and we take responsibility for moving toward our goals. Over time, we develop our ability to motivate ourselves; we build our capacity for persistence and long-term effort. Agency makes us the authors of our lives. 3. Pathways. We seek out and identify multiple pathways to our goals, pick the most appropriate routes for our situation, and monitor our progress over time. These are the plans that carry us forward, but we’re aware that obstacles can arise at any time. So we remain curious and open to finding better paths to our desired future.

For now, I just want to visualize these elements as a continuous feedback loop. Each element can set the others in motion. Each interacts with the others in ways that can reinforce, modify, or diminish them. When each is strong, together they form a cycle that enhances hope. When even one is weak, hope diminishes until we intervene to strengthen the element that is undeveloped or faltering. This simple model works whatever your goals, age, or circumstances, whether you’re most concerned about your family, your business, your community, or your personal development. But life is anything but simple. Hope has many faces and it flourishes in unexpected places. One of the most striking qualities of hope, however, is that hopeful people spread hope to almost everyone they meet.

Shane J. Lopez, Ph.D., is a Gallup Senior Scientist living in Lawrence, Kansas (USA). He is one of the world’s leading authorities on the psychology of hope. He has published seven professional books, including the Encyclopedia of Positive Psychology. His research on “Making Hope Happen” is dedicated to all people who believe that the future can be better than the past or present

United Kingdom

“ We can inspire our hope when we might feel it least but need it the most.”

Hope in the darkest of days It seems to be easy to live a hopeful life when things go well. But what about our very dark moments, when things go wrong? How do we find strength in hope after a dramatic experience? Dr. Alex Linley shows five positive effects of post-traumatic growth. Hope is our sense of positivity for the future. It is drawn primarily from our beliefs about our motivation and our capability to bring that future about. In hope, we set our face against the world, determined and believing that we will achieve – perhaps against the odds, perhaps with the odds in our favor. But no matter, for hope is calculus, not probability. Hope is about the realization of an outcome, not the weighted chances of achieving that outcome. The more we believe in ourselves and our chances of success, the greater the hope we have. But maintaining hope when everything is stacked against us can be hard. At least, that is, until we realize that hope is often tested and forged in the crucible of bitter experience. We need hope most when we are suffering. There is a pleasing symmetry that, by looking at the outcomes of suffering, we can find hope for hope even in the midst of suffering itself.

Across the great philosophies, religions, and literatures of the world, the evidence for the value of the struggle through suffering is shown time and again. In the last twenty years or so, psychologists have started to catch up with this, labeling the phenomenon as posttraumatic growth.

Growth Broadly speaking, there are five good things that can come about through our struggle with suffering, known as post-traumatic growth. 1. We may improve in our relationships with others, valuing and appreciating people more, perhaps recognizing that they are there for us, and understanding more gratefully what they do for us. 2. We may see new possibilities for our lives and our future, exploring new hobbies, careers, or even changes to our lifestyle as a result. 3. We may discover new sources of personal strength, finding that there are things we can do that we would never have dreamed, or that we have deeper reserves than we had ever suspected. 4. We may change spiritually, developing a deeper connection with something that is bigger than we are, finding or strengthening a belief in a higher power. 5. We may shift up a notch in our appreciation of life, noticing things like the changing seasons, the warm words of a friend, or the fact that our bus is running on time. When we see that we could have lost all of this, its presence is now appreciated, no longer taken for granted as it was before.

Freedom When we recognize that good things can come – and do come – from our struggle with suffering, we are able to see hope blossom anew. In the midst of the darkest hours of our struggle, knowing that there is a brighter future on the other side. Thus, we can inspire our hope when we might feel it least but need it the most. When hope takes hold, it changes the trajectory of our thinking and our progress. Rather than seeing everything wrong and getting worse, we now see what’s right and how we can make it better. Rather than feeling helpless and impotent, we start to remember and realize our own power. As we re-awaken our power, we rediscover our will, the same will that helps us find our new ways.

This hope is internal to us, our beacon but also our responsibility. And yet, sometimes, we will face situations where no matter what we do, the outcome is beyond our influence, let alone our control. At times like this, our hope changes. From a belief that starts within ourselves, it becomes a belief in the beneficence of our God, however we may define Him or Her, or even a belief just in the power of a benign universe. And it is here that hope meets its close cousin, faith. Hope is for when we can influence and control the outcome, faith is for when we can’t.

Viktor Frankl famously wrote that the last freedom that can never be taken away from us is the freedom to choose our attitude to our circumstances. Embracing this, we can choose hope. And in hope, we can choose a better future. So even in the worst of times, when everything else seems lost, we can always choose hope. Even in the darkest of days.

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Hope is about the realization of an outcome, not the weighted chances of achieving that outcome.

Post-traumatic growth may include improved relationships, seeing new possibilities, discovering personal strength, changing spiritually, or shifting a notch in our appreciation of life.

The last freedom that can never be taken away from us is the freedom to choose our attitude to our circumstances. Even in the darkest of days we can always choose hope.

Alex Linley, PhD, is the Chief Executive Officer of Capp, a leading strengths-based assessment provider. He holds a first class psychology degree from the University of Leicester (United Kingdom), where he has been a Visiting Professor in Psychology, and a PhD from the University of Warwick. He is recognized internationally as a leading expert on positive psychology and its applications. He is the author of seven books including the Human Resources bestseller “The Strengths book.”

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Portugal

“ We prefer to be with others who make us feel more optimistic.”

Making pessimism work

“The effects of positive states of mind such as optimism have often been discussed as able to produce both positive and negative outcomes for people and society,” says Prof. Miguel Pereira Lopes. But his research has shown that we are also able to make pessimism work. How? It seems true that feeling optimistic sometimes makes people more proactive and able to achieve their goals. However, it also seems to be the case that being optimistic sometimes makes people confident that things will become better without any action on their own. The truth is that we will probably keep feeling both optimistic and pessimistic throughout our lifetime and, the better we can learn how to take out the best of each situation, the better we can manage to be happy. What may thus be the “click” that makes optimism and pessimism work instead of turning people into passive human beings? I have learned from my research that hope has such a powerful effect! Hope is a powerful tool for turning both optimistic and pessimistic individuals who become passive into proactive people who set and achieve their own goals and make an impact in the world. In a research published in The Journal of Positive Psychology in 2008 my fellow researchers and I have found that when people feel higher levels of optimism and hope they become more proactive in their life. However, what is more interesting is the role hope plays when people are feeling pessimistic. When people feel pessimistic, hope reduces their levels of passive behavior and turns them into more active individuals in their work and life. Hope reveals itself as the way of taking out the best of optimism as well as

making people act more proactively when they feel pessimistic. As such, one should help others and oneself to increase their levels of hope as an antidote to pessimistic beliefs that lead to passive behavior.

Miguel Pereira Lopes

Alternative ways My research has also focused on how we can use hope to promote more proactive coping, particularly when people are feeling pessimistic. When separating the two faces of hope – the will and the ways – we found that it was the “ways” side of hope that made the difference in putting pessimism to work favorably. Put into practical wording, hope can leverage proactive recovery and behavior when people are in a pessimistic mood through the outlining of possible alternative ways to achieve their goals. As such, you can become a proactive agent of change simply by thinking about alternative pathways to achieve your goals and dreams. This is particularly effective when you start feeling pessimistic

about the possibility that things will run fine.

hope throughout our social relations and outlines the ethical demand of assuming that responsibility. For if it is true that collective hope can have such a socio-economic power, it is also true that it all starts with the simple micro action that an “alter-hopeful agent” undertakes.

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Hope reveals itself as the way of taking out the best of optimism as well as making people act more proactively when they feel pessimistic.

Hope can leverage proactive recovery and behavior when people are in a pessimistic mood through the outlining of possible alternative ways to achieve their goals.

Good vibrations But how about if you could help make the world more proactive too? How can you become an agent of hope and proactivity in your world? In a book I have recently published named Good Vibrations: Three Studies on Optimism, Social Networks and Resource-Attraction Capability you’ll find scientific research showing that people prefer to be with others who make them feel more optimistic. I termed that effect as “alter-optimism” to accentuate the fact that it is not how much you feel optimistic that matters, but how much you make those around you feel optimistic, i.e., sending them “good vibrations.” A similar reasoning can apply to hope. Despite the levels of hope you feel yourself, you are always able to create higher levels of hope in others. In other words, it is in your hand to become an “alter-hopeful agent”! And now you know: What do alter-hopeful agents do? They help others find new and alternative ways to achieve their goals and dreams. They open up possibilities instead of shutting down their dreams and aspirations. So do not waste your time anymore, and go make your peers increase their levels of hope and proactivity.

It is not how much you feel optimistic that matters, but how much you make those around you feel optimistic. Collective hope is a strong socio-economic power.

Miguel Pereira Lopes is an Assistant Professor at the School of Social and Political Sciences, Lisbon University (Portugal). He is the President of the Board of INTEC – Behavioral Technology Institute, a not-for-profit organization he founded to run applied quality of life research. Miguel holds a PhD in Applied Psychology and a Post-Doc in Economics. His work has been published in numerous international peer-reviewed journals and he is the (co)author of several books on talent management, leadership, and positive organization studies. Miguel is ethically committed with his own research and tries to live according to it, including attempting to seize each interactional opportunity to act as an “alter-hopeful agent” and help others to enlarge their horizons and dreams.

Strong engine Hope is a strong recovery engine for socio-economic development as well. In a recent scientific paper published in the Journal of Socio-Economics about the psycho-sociology of business and economic cycles, I outlined a socio-economic model that considers unrealistic optimism as a cause for economic downturns and hopeful pessimism as a cause for economic recovery and development. This means that the benefits of acting based on the scientific principles of hope theory can go beyond the local effects among people and can have a societal impact. This evidences our responsibility for spreading

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New Ze al and

H O P E F UL P RO J E C T

After the earthquake: Gap Filler The 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand’s second largest city, left 185 dead and led to the loss of 80% of the central city’s buildings and abandonment of entire suburbs due to land damage. Apart from the official rebuilding program, some volunteers stood up to turn the scar into a source of hope for the city. Gap Filler is one of the most creative and hopeful answers to the disaster. A team of seven people and 1700 volunteers create hope by sound gardens, moving dance floors, a cycle-powered cinema, murals, and a Pallet Pavilion in deserted places. How does it work? In a similar manner, people looking.

Gap Filler is an urban regeneration

and enabled 40 more. The initiative

Gap Filler has been bringing life

initiative operating in Christchurch,

has had a large role to play in

to the city though its most raw,

New Zealand. A charitable trust, it

putting Christchurch on the map

traumatic stages and gaining

was created by three people from

in terms of its creative, community-

international profile while doing so.

backgrounds that include visual

led response to the disaster.

arts, event management, architec-

Thanks to the help from Gap Filler

Every Gap Filler project is different

ture, film, and theater. Gap Filler

along with other groups such as

and almost all of them involve

was born after a magnitude 7.1

Greening the Rubble, Life in Vacant

volunteers. The organization is

earthquake struck the city in

Spaces (founded by Gap Filler),

values driven believing in experi-

September 2010 causing a number

Plant Gang, The Social, and more,

mentation and learning from the

of buildings to be destroyed and

Christchurch now has what is

findings, leadership, creativity,

then demolished. Christchurch

called a Transitional movement,

community engagement, and

then experienced another, more

which is used to refer to those

resourcefulness. Gap Filler sees

destructive earthquake in February

creating projects, interventions,

its role as to lead by example;

of the following year (2011), which

and responses to the largely vacant

to treat the city as a laboratory for

left 185 dead and led to the loss of

central city. There is even a festival

experiments by a range of people

80% of the central city’s buildings.

every year in October, the only one

and communities. Short-term,

of its kind in the world, called the

low-risk experiments in the

Transitional movement

Festival of Transitional Architecture.

temporary or transitional space

Since September 2010, Gap Filler

Rebuilding in Christchurch is

can provide learning that can

has created and facilitated more

underway but it’s slow going and

feed into the long-term rebuild

than 45 projects around the city

will take a decade or more.

and fabric of the city.

above: In a similar manner, people looking in

Fill the gap A natural disaster is a traumatic, deeply disempowering experience. Still, people stand up. Gap Filler is one of these hopeful examples in the world. They use vacant sites awaiting redevelopment for temporary, creative, peoplecentered purposes. Anyone with an idea or an initiative is welcome: local community groups, artists, architects, landowners, librarians, designers, students, engineers, dancers – the list goes on. The projects are temporary in nature, seeking to activate vacant sites to demonstrate that the city can grow in important ways without waiting for large capital expenditure or major construction. With these small-scale, pop-up, temporary projects the community creates a hopeful dynamic.

a prospective partner for kindness, understanding, warmth and trustworthiness.

An example of this is Gap Filler’s Dance-O-Mat project, a coin-operated dance floor on a vacant site, conceived in response to a lack of dance venues post-quake. The project meets a very real need in the city but also acts as an invitation to passers-by to use it, enabling all sorts of random interactions. It’s had more than 1000 hours of use in 2.5 years and has become a much-loved project that is currently in its fourth location. When planners look to developing public realm space both in Christchurch and beyond, they can site the Dance-O-Mat as evidence that if a place for dance is created, it will likely get used.

HOPEFUL PROJECT

People looking in a prospective partner for kindness. Partner for kindness.

Test ideas

We now have a staff of 7 people. In the first three years,

Gap Filler projects after the earthquake have included:

more than 1700 people have volunteered. In 2013,

1. The Dance-O-Mat — a coin operated dance floor

Gap Filler got better at tracking data and calculated

on a vacant site. Plug it in, put in $2 courtesy of

that in that year we hosted 495 volunteers who gave

an old washing machine from a Laundromat,

2294 volunteer hours to the city, gave 52 presentations

and you get 30 minutes to boogie.

about Gap Filler, and worked with 10 schools through

2. The Think Differently Book Exchange — books

kindness, understanding, warmth and trustworthiness.

chillin’ in a commercial fridge.

3. Sound Garden — musical instruments made of

Gap Filler is committed to giving everyday people

a stake in their city here and now. Volunteer opportu-

recycled materials situated in a Greening the

Rubble garden for people to jam with others.

nities, or the chance to make an idea come to life,

4. RAD Bikes — a community bike workshop. Learn

give people a strong sense of satisfaction. When the

how to fix your own bike or fix up old, unloved

government-led recovery of Christchurch is still only

bikes to then gift on to those who need them.

just getting going 3.5 years after the disaster, people

5. The Pallet Pavilion — a community venue made

need reasons to stay in their city and contribute now.

from left to right: In a similar manner / people looking in a prospective partner /

our Education program.

from 3000 CHEP wooden pallets. Built by volunteers

across 6 weeks, this incredible project hosted more

A natural disaster is a traumatic, deeply disempowering

than 200 events such as live music, markets,

experience. There are times of great optimism when

cinema, lectures, and more.

everyone is full of hope to rebuild the city better than

6. Murals, artworks

ever. And then there are the lows—the fatigue, the

7. A Cycle-Powered Cinema

despondency, the disillusionment, and anger from

8. An ongoing Education and Community Outreach

those poor souls still battling with insurance compa-

program sharing our learning with the wider

nies and living in leaky, damaged houses even now,

after all these years. Gap Filler’s temporary projects

community to inspire action and social change.

Author of Ar ticle

left: In a similar manner,

right: Including detailed

people looking in a prospec-

behavioural observations

tive partner for kindness,

and speed dating designs.

understanding, warmth and trustworthiness.

something you can rely on. What it feels like when friends and colleagues leave the city en masse; companies, schools, and services forced out of unsafe buildings. The impact of continuing aftershocks; the rumbles and shakes that are an almost daily reminder of what happened before, and what might happen again.

do a range of things in the city. They beautify the

“This is hope in all its glory”

broken landscape with injections of creativity and quirkiness. They provide opportunities for people to participate in shaping their city and feel empowered through doing so. They test out ideas or what people want and don’t want in the

Hanna Smith got a Winston Churchill Fellowship in 2013 to explore the practice of social entre preneurship in New Zealand and the South Pacific. She was struck by the example of Gap Filler.

city through their propositional nature. They can provide learning that can influence the more permanent fabric of the city. They provoke, critique, and question and allow people to feel involved. All of this is very important for the health and wellbeing of Christchurch’s people. Coralie Winn, Director and Co-Founder of Gap Filler, Christchurch (New Zealand) More information about Gap Filler: www.gapfiller.org.nz

We see earthquakes on the news and we think of the shaking, of homes collapsing around us, of cracks in the ground and immediate peril. Here in post-quake Christchurch, I’ve learned that’s only the first terrifying chapter of a much longer story. A city is a very different place when there is demo lition and chaos everywhere and the landmarks you’d always taken for granted are no more. Visually, it’s arresting. But talking to those who live here I am even more struck by how deeply these quakes have rocked people on the inside. The enormous impact on your mental health when firm ground beneath your feet is no longer

It’s easy to see only all this devastation. When you know what’s been lost, it’s hard not to yearn for it to be there again. But in seeking out social entrepreneurs and social enterprise in this broken city, I’ve been finding people who see things differently. People who are working tirelessly to create a “new normal.” Among the demolition, the empty lots and a population unsteady on its feet, there are some incredible beacons of hope and possibility. Leading the charge in re-enlivening the cityscape – and helping people fall in love with their city again – are groups like Gap Filler. Seeing the suddenly empty city as “a vast canvas for urban experimentation,” they encourage and support people to bring ideas and joy into the empty spaces. To experiment playfully and, in doing so, help citizens and tourists alike rediscover the city – and think ahead to the future.

the devastation for a while. There are outdoor cycle-powered film screenings, interactive art installations, temporary music venues, and walls where graffiti is encouraged. People are meeting, exploring, and playing in places where otherwise only litter and dead leaves would be gathering. And as they do, the city is coming alive again. For me, this is hope in all its glory. Color, dancing, flowers, and crazy golf among the rubble of a fallendown city. The challenges people are facing here are immense – but groups like Gap Filler are radiating energy and optimism among the broken places and broken spirits. While the cogs of power grind slowly along, they are gently holding and healing the wounded city. Christchurch as it used to be may be gone, but there can still be joy and beauty. And there will always, always be hope. ¶

There’s a temporary crazy golf course, each hole on a different empty lot. Local businesses lend clubs and balls, and you play a round and forget

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