Hope seems to be the hardest word to define. It’s has this property to seem elusive. Whenever I ask people to explain what hope is for them, they end up struggling to put their perceptions into words. What comes easy, however, is a full range of synonyms where wish and desire are the most popular. So, it does not come as a surprise that they all think of hope as a warm feeling that makes a person see the future in a rather positive way.
But is it an emotion? That is the question! The dictionary entries seem to corroborate people’s general beliefs on hope. For example, Cambridge Dictionary defines hope as: “a confident feeling about what will happen in the future”. Collins English Dictionary offers a more or less similar explanation: “a feeling of desire and expectation that things will go well in the future”. These definitions show hope as a feeling that is not rooted in the present. It is prospective contributing to the creation of a rather positive state of mind in a person.
Probably adding to people’s perception of hope as an emotion are the adjectives derived from the word hope, i.e. hopeful and hopeless. Both collocate with the verb feel. You can hear someone saying “I feel quite hopeful that I will pass all my exams” or “He felt lonely and utterly hopeless”. It is worth noting that these adjectives denote totally opposed feelings, such as optimism and confidence vs. pessimism and desperation. Another interesting linguistic fact is that the noun hope does not collocate with the verb feel. So, you can be full of, cherish, entertain, have, see, express, voice, cling to, keep alive, live in, abandon, give up, lose, boost hope, but not feel it. I found this interesting.
I looked at Robert Plutchik’s wheel of emotions and I found no hope in it. While examining the 8 primary emotions, the closest that come to the dictionary meanings attached to hope are joy and anticipation. When these two are combined, they result in optimism, which is opposed to disapproval. Optimism is defined as a tendency/attitude/feeling/inclination to be hopeful. It is also viewed as a doctrine that this world is the best possible world.
Although there is a close relationship between hope and optimism, they denote different concepts. Optimism is a feeling, whereas hope is not. It turns out that hope is a cognitive ability which gives us a sense of agency and accountability for our actions while we channel our energy into achieving the set goals. This is what I understood from C.R. Snyder’s article Hope Theory: Rainbows in the Mind. The outlook on hope as a mental capability came as a surprise to me. Indeed, it appears fairly unusual to think of hope the way we think of logic and reasoning or working memory. But this is exactly how hope should be defined.
The appeal of Snyder’s view is in the way it shows hope as being rooted in the present. Although it is still prospective, it is the present that shapes the future course of action. Hope, thus, becomes the link between the present and the imagined future.
Just like so many things, this happens at an unconscious level. People are not even aware that whenever they hope for something to happen in their lives they have already made up their minds to achieve the set goals. Hope becomes the fuel that helps them come up with possible solutions to fulfill their aims.
So, hope is a particular way of thinking that motivates people to take action or to choose what action to take in order to achieve their goals. Snyder’s hope theory consists of three components: goals, pathways, and agency. Hope lies in goal setting, i.e. at the core of every hope there is a goal. Moreover, “human actions are goal directed” (Snyder, 2002: 250). When I came across this statement, I immediately remembered Victor Finkl’s great book Man’s Search for Meaning. All of a sudden, the puzzle was solved. I think Victor Frankl was, in Snyder’s words, a high hoper, and namely hope fueled by the goal he had in his mind gave him the mental energy he needed to survive the appalling conditions at Auschwitz. Later on, he laid the foundations of logotherapy which is supposed to help people find their meaning in life. It, thus, appears that people who have no goals, have no hope, and consequently no meaning in life.
Frankl determined three paths a person can follow in order to find meaning in life. The first is by doing or creating something. This means the person needs to take concrete actions. The second way to live a purposeful life is to love. In Victor Frankl’s opinion, “love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire (Frankl, 1992: 40)”. Finally, the third way is the attitude a person takes in front of unavoidable suffering. It is important to note that this is true only when suffering can’t be avoided, otherwise suffering becomes useless.
I think these three paths are what Snyder calls pathways thinking, the second component in his hope theory. Once the goals are established, people should think of concrete actions they should take in order to achieve them, otherwise they will remain “unanswered calls” (Snyder, 2002: 251). Unlike Frankl, Snyder does not offer concrete paths, as he believes each pathway is individual. Moreover, high-hope people have the ability to make changes if necessary, coming up with alternative routes. The idea is that once the goal is set, they make up their minds to find a way to reach the goal.
Finally, the last component is agency thinking. Snyder believes that this is the motivational component in hope theory. It is namely this type of thinking that enables a person to keep on track regardless of the various barriers that can appear on the way. It fosters a person’s grit and determination. This can be close to Frankl’s statement that “life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual” (Frankl, 1992: 72). Agency thinking involves not only determination but also responsibility.
I have recently reread the short story The Last Leaf by O. Henry. I have to admit that the knowledge I gained from Snyder’s and Frankl’s works helped me look at this story from a totally new perspective. Johnsy and Mr. Behrman did not have hope. Even if we admit that they might have goals they seem to not have pathways and agency thinking. So, their goals remained unanswered calls. Both of them have a negative attitude that created the barriers they could not overcome. As a result, they ended up utterly depressed and basically giving up on their lives. However, there is an interesting twist in the story. Johnsy managed to find a pathway although it was rather immature and irresponsible. Whereas, the old painter seemed to have finally found the meaning in life, even at the cost of his own life.
I would like to conclude with a quote by Nitzsche whom Frankl quotes in his book: “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how”. The why stands for what is at the core of hope, i.e. the goal; the how stands for the pathways the person takes to achieve that goal as well as their determination on the way. So, be a high hoper – find meaning in your life by setting goals, thinking of ways to attain them and staying determined. This way hope will never elude you and you will be able to respond to life’s challenges responsibly.
References:
- Snyder’s Article Hope Theory: Rainbows in the Mind
- Frankl, V. (1992). Man’s Search for Meaning. Boston: Beacon Press.
Falling in English with You :) 
Firstly, I would like to thank you for this helpful and intriguing article. It is very motivational and it really helped me to get more understanding about the concept of hope in our life which is so hard to define. I absolutely agree that hope and goals are related to each other and one can’t exist without the other. Hopes and dreams are the castles we build in the air. They need foundations. And the first step in building the foundation of a dream is to set a goal. A goal implies that action will be taken to reach it. It implies that one will discipline oneself until the goal has been accomplished.
Hopes and dreams on the other side, require no more than thought. People who achieve their hopes and dreams have set goals and in a disciplined, systematic way have worked to reach them.
If I say, “I want a wonderful new job,” that’s a dream. If I say, “I want a wonderful new job by the end of the year,” that’s a goal. Hence, “goals” begin with hopes and dreams. Finally, we hope for many things, we may wish for things, pray for things, or even expect things. But all we control at the end of the day is the things we ourselves do. Hope without action is pointless.
Hope without action is not hope at the end. You’ve mentioned goal setting, which is the right thing to do. I was wondering if you’re familiar with SMART framework for setting goals.
Thank you very much for another captivating and informative article that gives a lot of food for thought. Indeed, hope appears to be a simple notion but it turned out that it is almost impossible to find a universal definition. This simple word turned to be quite ambiguous and even incomprehensible in a sense. Each of us can provide with a definition of hope and explain why it is important to have it but actually all definitions differ, even those presented in the dictionaries. Moreover, when we try to find an explanation we can find it quite challenging to come up with appropriate words that would encompass everything we need, thus we may contradict ourselves. So, this simple word appears to be the most difficult one to explain (actually, as any other feeling/emotion/state of mind), the fact that emphasizes its elusiveness. We cannot even decide what hope really is – an emotion, a feeling or a positive state of mind.
While reading the article I realized that I had never regarded hope as a mental capability, so it was a surprising fact for me. I still cannot think of hope the way I think of logic, memory etc. At the same time, hope appears to be the bridge between the present and the future because namely the present determines the course of action in the future, and, even unconsciously, we have already made up our minds to reach the established goals anytime we hope for something to happen. Thus, from this perspective, hope is a particular way of thinking that helps us find appropriate solutions to achieve that something.
When speaking about hope, probably the only thing we all can agree with is that it gives meaning to our life and makes it possible to see the future in a more positive way. Honestly, I was a firm believer that hope is a feeling, namely a strong desire for something to happen or to improve but after reading the article I doubt that hope is a feeling. However, I still consider that hope makes our lives much more meaningful and our actions more reasonable. Hope is crucial in our lives because it allows us to look forward to a brighter future. It is also one of the most major protective factors in helping us tackle potentially dangerous thoughts and decisions (maybe too naive but I still believe in it). Whatever it is, a feeling or a state of mind, we need it because, among others, it helps us focus on our goals. If we hope to achieve something, most probably we will set certain goals which can be actually viewed as the heart of hope. In this respect, it is not vital to know whether hope is a feeling or something totally different, everything we need is to set goals, think of strategies to achieve them, and stay committed to make life meaningful.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. And it’s OK to think differently. There’s not one unique point of view that is valid for everybody. We look at things from different perspectives. It’s important to keep our minds open and consider an issue from various perspectives.
To begin with, I would like to thank you for this article, that makes me think totally differently that I get used to. For me and I suppose that for majority of people, hope is the state of mind, when you program yourself to believe that you are on the right way. That’s an ambiguous concept that every person defines in their own perception. For somebody, it is a feeling, that takes you away of problems and makes you think positively. Recently, I have read the poem by Georgia Douglas Johnson “Hope”, it seems to be so realistic for your society, that no matter how difficult our life is, there is always hope for the next day. After looking through the lines of the poem, I was struck by the idea, that it is so complicated to find out the mutual definition that can be accepted by all people.
The interesting thing is that it deals with feelings, but to my mind, it is not a feeling, vice versa it provokes feelings. Delving deep in the essence of this concept and unfolding its relationships with others, I completely support the idea that hope goes along with optimism. Hope is the optimistic perception about the future and the successful outcome of something, in a nutshell it is a tendency to take a hopeful view on something.
The next proposed theory is about the connection between hope and goals, pathways, and agency. I can assume that hope is a way of thinking that makes a person obtain something or to begin the path to realize something. The appearance of hope is the appearance of the meaning of the life.
Hope is not wishful thinking, optimism, or the power of positive thinking. There is nothing wrong with being optimistic, of course. Optimism is associated with many beneficial outcomes. When people have hope, their goals are more likely to become reality. Likewise, the scientists who struggle to end the COVID-19 pandemic or the patients with cancer who choose to undergo treatments with painful side-effects know the road will be hard, but they push forward because they find their goals realistic. That is the real source of hope!
An interesting perspective. Indeed, hope is the engine, but we need the gear box to make it work.
Yes… Mrs. Kondrat it’s hard to disagree with you… After all, every person always hopes for something, but we never thought about what Hope is…
Hope is a person’s faith in the best, the confidence that all dreams and desires will come true. Hope is always associated with a state of expectation, because a person is waiting for the moment when everything that he has planned will come true. She consoles a person, because he becomes confident that everything will definitely work out for him. Hope is a positive feeling, because it makes a person believe in himself and his strength, makes him go towards what he wants and not give up.
In my opinion, hope is the feeling of waiting for something good and believing that it can come true.
Indeed, the concept of hope is most closely related to the concept of faith . These feelings give meaning to our existence. Hope supports a person even in the most difficult moments of life, makes you not give up. It is rightly said that hope dies last,
because no matter how hopeless the situation may seem, if there is hope, everything is possible.
And how do you define hope?
First of all, thank you Mrs. Condrat for this interesting information, I agree with you that hope is a particular way of thinking that motivates people to take action or to choose what action to take in order to achieve their goals.Hope is when you want something to happen or to be true, and usually have a good reason to think that it might, but if we do not have certain goals for the fulfillment of this hope, and if we do not have the will and the desire, we will not be able to make this hope come true.Sometimes we need help to see things in a different way, sometimes we need to change parts of our lives, whatever it may be. There is support out there to help you find the strength to believe that hope is a possibility and it can help us change the way that we live. When something unpleasant happens in our life we hope that everything will be fine. For example, we hope that the war in Ukraine will end and that all things will return to normal.Hope is a part of our life and it is a positive part.
Indeed, we want the war to stop. To hope can be applied in this context if concerte actions are taken. The path seems to be long, but the fire must stop immediately.
Thank you for this food for thought. Indeed, the concept of “hope” it’s a elusive one, and tis article helped me to better understand what hope is.Whether we think about it or not, hope is a part of everyone’s life. Everyone hopes for something. I feel like hope can lay the groundwork for what you want your life to look like. To have hope is to want an outcome that makes your life better in some way. It not only can help make a tough present situation more bearable but also can eventually improve our lives because envisioning a better future motivates you to take the steps to make it happen. When we’re hopeful, we think and act strategically, rather than becoming paralyzed by fear. Most people associate “hope ” with “optimism”, however I totally agree that “hope” is not the same as “optimism”. Hope is the process of setting goals and following through on them, while optimism is a positive thought pattern. On the one hand, an optimistic person generally is more hopeful than others. On the other hand, the most pessimistic person can still be hopeful about something. While speaking about hope and the meaning of the life, I would strongly agree that hope makes our life meaningful. In a way, having hope links your past and present to the future. You have a vision for what you hope will happen. Whether it does not, just envisioning it can make you feel better. From my point of view, hope lets us feel and be enthusiastic, spiritual, energetic and filled with potential.It is our connection to an ever-better future. Life can hardly continue without a sense of hope.
So, Natalie, hope gives meaning to our life. )))