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What is Your Hope Story?




In layman’s terms, hope is the expectation that your future can somehow be better, no matter the present circumstances. In contrast, psychologists define hope in a more structured way so that they can measure this attribute. According to them, hope is the pursuit of your goals with the knowledge that you have the capacity and the motivation to achieve them (Snyder et al., 2006). In other words, hope has two key elements:

1. A sense of successful determination in meeting past, present, and future goals.
2. A sense of being able to generate successful plans to meet the goals.

The first element is called the agency, and the second element is called the pathway, which, in layman’s terms, translates into the will and the way, respectively. These two components of hope are reciprocal and work synergistically but are not synonymous (Snyder et al., 1991). People with the will to achieve their goals may not have the ways to do it and vice versa. Both the will and the way are necessary to achieve goals, and hope represents how one perceives one's sense of determination and the ability to generate successful plans to meet goals. When goals are blocked or not met, you may feel frustrated and hopeless, which may then lead to depression.

Research shows that one way for people to be aware of their sense of agency and pathway is to write their hope story. Writing your hope story will help you clarify your goal selection, determination to reach the goal, and perception of your ability to solve the problems you may encounter. By narrating where you have been and where you are now, you connect the dots of your journey toward your goal, which paves the way to hope.

Steps for writing your hope story

When you write your hope story, don’t filter your thoughts or feelings when you are writing. Start by writing about a single experience in detail using the steps below (McDermott & Snyder, 1999).

1. Introducing yourself:
  • Mention your age, gender, marital status, and educational background.
  • Mention any hobbies, interests, or other personal qualities that are important to you and should be included in your description.
2. Identify your goal:

Think about a recent situation, not a big but a small one, in which you wanted to do or get something. For example, planning your vacation, buying gifts for a loved one, interviewing for a job, learning a new skill, etc.
  • Mention how long you had been desirous of this goal and if you had tried to achieve it before.
  • Write how achieving this goal would impact your life and what it would mean to you.
3. Describe your ways of reaching the goal:
  • How easy or difficult was it for you to generate ideas to reach the goal?
  • Describe the different paths you imagined toward reaching the goal.
  • What paths did you try and discard?
  • What path did you ultimately choose and why?
4. Thoughts and feelings associated with working toward the goal:
  • How confident did you feel while implementing the plan to achieve your goal?
  • What thoughts or feelings did you have while trying to reach your goal?
  • Were you anxious, enthusiastic, hopeful, or uncertain?
  • If you felt hopeless, what did you do or say to yourself to overcome that?
5. Overcoming obstacles:
  • What obstacles did you face while trying to reach your goal?
  • What did you do to overcome the obstacles?
  • Did you try other ways to reach your goal?
  • Were you successful in overcoming your obstacles, or did you give up and decide to try later?
  • How did you handle your frustrations due to the obstacles?
6. What were the results of your efforts?
  • Write about whether you achieved your goal.
  • What was it like to get there or not get there?
  • Was the result something you had expected?
  • Was your endeavor worth it?
  • Was the pursuit of your goal harder or more straightforward than you thought?
  • What did you learn from your efforts to pursue your goal?
After writing your hope story, put it down for a little while. Then, come back and read it again and pay attention to keywords or phrases that are hope markers. For example, “I was ready,” “I was strong,” “I was determined to find a way to deal with the situation,” “I have accomplished quite a lot,” “I felt confident,” etc. Next, ask yourself, “What did I learn from this exercise of writing my hope story?” “How can I apply what I learned to be more hopeful in the future?” If your hope story had very few hope markers and more negative self-remarks, consider the possibility of pessimistic thinking patterns such as all-or-none thinking, overgeneralization, or jumping to conclusions that may be coloring your perception, especially if you didn’t achieve your goal. If depression is making you feel hopeless, it would be prudent to seek professional help.

Check out Dr. Duggal’s Author Page to learn more about evidence-based self-management techniques that promote mental health and well-being.

HARPREET S. DUGGAL, MD, FAPA

REFERENCES

McDermott, D & Snyder, C. R. (1999). Making hope happen: A workbook for turning possibilities into reality. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

Snyder, C. R., Harris, C., Anderson, J. R., Holleran, S. A., Irving, L. M., Sigmon, S. T., …& Harney, P. (1991). The will and the ways: development and validation of an individual-differences measure of hope. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(4), 570-585.

Snyder, C. R., Ritschel, L. A., Rand, K.L., & Berg, C. (2006). Balancing psychological assessments: including strengths and hope in client reports. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62(1), 33-46.





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