The Research-Backed Key To Practical Hope: Focus On Your Own Effort

The Research-Backed Key To Practical Hope: Focus On Your Own Effort

“Hope” sounds like it doesn’t exist outside of movies. It’s impractical to just cross your fingers and hope things get better. If you tie your hope to your own effort, though, it gets a lot more effective.

Photo by Steve Snodgrass.

As tips site Barking Up the Wrong Tree explains, “hope” is the belief that things will get better in the future. If you don’t do anything to make that happen, then obviously your hope might not lead anywhere.

However, if you use that hope to fuel your work, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Put simply, those who have hope for a better future and work towards it do better than people who only do one or the other:

Sound corny? No, this isn’t just wishing things will go well. Angela says you need an active type of hope. You must believe things will improve because you’re going to improve them. Now hope may sound fuzzy and unscientific but it’s not. Research shows people without hope avoid bigger challenges, quit earlier, and act helpless. What could be more anti-grit than that?

For a cynical mind, it’s easy to assume that the hope part is irrelevant as long as you’re doing the work. However, as University of Pennsylvania professor Angela Duckworth points out, if you work continuously without any hope that things will get better, you’re more likely to avoid the risks and quicker to quit. Work and hope go hand-in-hand, if you want to improve your future.

This Is The Research-Backed Way To Increase Grit [Barking Up the Wrong Tree]


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