Four Steps to Generating Hope During Life’s Biggest Challenges

Hope often dwindles during life's challenges, leading to feelings of boredom, exhaustion, anxiety, or indifference. Overcoming hopelessness is crucial, as it enables individuals to take positive actions to improve their lives. Positive psychologists have studied hopelessness extensively and identified ways to generate hope or enter a state of "Flow" or Optimal Psychology. Here are four steps to generate hope during life's biggest challenges:

1. Identify Your Source of Hopelessness

Analysis:

  Determine if you're feeling bored, exhausted, anxious, or indifferent.

  Assess the challenges, obstacles, and stressors in your life.

  Evaluate your skills and abilities to handle these challenges.

  Identify the gap between the challenge and your skills, where hopelessness resides.

Categories:

  High Challenge/Low Skills: Worry, Anxiety, Amped

  High Challenge/High Skills: Flow/Flourishing

  Low Challenge/High Skills: Relaxed & Bored (Tend to control)

  Low Challenge/Low Skills: Apathetic & Indifferent

2. Make Your Challenge More Interesting

Motivation Boost:

  Make challenging tasks more interesting to increase motivation.

  Reframe challenges to find them intriguing and worth addressing.

 Refocus on challenges that genuinely interest you to overcome discouragement.

Examples:

  Completed a challenging PhD program by reframing it as an opportunity to demonstrate resilience to kids.

  Sustained an exercise regimen by making it interesting for upcoming events.

  Turned a knee surgery challenge into an opportunity by brainstorming activities post-recovery.

3. Create a Plan to Deepen Your Skills & Competency

Root Growth:

  Overcoming hopelessness often requires growing deeper roots.

  Seek solutions from those with skills you lack.

  Explore books, classes, and professional advice to gain knowledge and skills.

  Recognize that claiming to have tried "everything" may indicate deeper issues.

Example:

  A client unable to read found hope by enrolling in a reading program, boosting confidence and self-reliance.

4. Deliver Focused Action Daily on The Challenge

Intentional Action:

  Turn off distractions and focus on the challenge.

  Engage in daily focused actions aligned with your plan.

  Seek an accountability partner or coach to maintain focus.

  Ask, "What is the most important thing I can do right now to continue progress?"

Review and Recalibrate:

 Regularly review actions and recalibrate for ongoing progress.

 Connect daily actions with motivating goals and interesting challenges.

 Recognize the positive impact of your efforts, reinforcing progress and dispelling hopelessness.

By following these steps, individuals can regain hope, actively work towards overcoming challenges, and experience positive changes in their lives.