create a hopeful future
When you think about your future, do you get excited or feel apprehensive? Do you have feelings of hope, or hopelessness? If you’re feeling hopeless, my friend, you are one of many.
Almost half of Americans, 48% are feeling down, depressed, or hopeless — and for good reason. 2020 and beyond has been difficult for people across the world. There has been civil unrest, a health crisis, businesses have closed, people have lost their jobs, and more!
In this blog, I’m going to share the power of hope to your success and well-being, and 5 powerful leadership paradigms which will help you create a hopeful future. But, before I get into sharing all that, let’s define hope.
Most psychologists who study the feeling of hope favor the definition of hope developed by the late Charles R. Snyder, a pioneer of hope research, and a psychologist at the University of Kansas. In Charles R. Snyder’s hope model, he shares three components which make up hope: goals, agency, and pathways. Let’s define these 3 components of hope…
Goals
Goals are your ideas of the future or a desired result paired with your commitment to achieve the result.
For example, a goal could be your desire and commitment to level up from a Director to a C-Suite position; the desire and commitment to quit your job and start your own business; your desire and commitment to double or triple the size of your business.
agency
Agency is the ability to shape your life — the belief that you can and have the power to make things happen, and you have the motivation to reach your desired outcome.
For example, business, life for that matter, is full of brick walls of frustration. Agency is to believe in your ability to succeed and figure out how to get around the many brick walls of frustration. If there is a will, there is a way.
pathways
Pathways are how you get to your goal — the routes and plans that allow you to achieve the goal.
For example, pathways are the play-by-play that you map out to quit your job and start your own business; the plans you develop to pivot your business and ensure it not only survives through the pandemic, but it thrives thereafter.
One of the most important factors of Charles Snyder’s hope model is the order of the components. If the components are out of order, or if you’re missing one of the three components, you will never get to truly experience and reap the benefits of hope.
Perfectionist as an example, they may start with step 1 and identify a goal for themselves, but then skip to step 3 (pathways) and try to figure out how to achieve their desired outcome. In the process to jumping to step 3, there is a thought that if they figure out how to be perfect and make a perfect pathway or road map to their desired outcome, it is then that they will have hope that it will work out. Alternatively, there is a fear that if they put something out which isn’t perfect, and it doesn’t work out, then hope will be lost. This is not hope.
Hope is not dependent on the outcome. Rather, hope is what you turn to when the outcome is uncertain. And to have hope is to hold your belief first, before you identify your how, or to have the agency before your pathway.
Now that hope has been defined for you, why does hope matter? How does hope contribute to our lives?
Hope creates excitement, motivation, and momentum for your future, affecting your overall well-being. When you have hope:
You’re more likely to overcome barriers and quickly pivot to new goals if something doesn’t work out for you.
You’re more likely to focus on what’s going well, which has you feeling good, energized, and making better decisions for yourself.
In the workplace, hopeful employees are 69 times more likely to be engaged, 14% more productive, and they do one more day of work than a less hopeful person.
Hope matters because it’s one of the most powerful motivators in our lives. Hope is a core component of what it means to be human and feel alive.
That said, there are many ways to create hopeful future for yourself. One way to create hope for yourself is through a paradigm shift. In this blog, I will be sharing 5 leadership paradigms that will help you move closer to hope, success, and well-being.
If you’re questioning whether these paradigms will apply to you because you don’t consider yourself a leader, I’m going to challenge you and say ARE a leader!
You are a leader if you are a current leader, an aspiring leader, or person of influence.
John Maxwell says, “Leadership is influence, nothing more nothing less.” ‘
To me, John Maxwell is saying leadership is not about your position or your job title. Leadership is about your ability to empower others, which you do! You ARE a leader — own it!
Having said that, here are your 5 leadership paradigms which will help you create a hopeful future:
Paradigm 1: I’m open to the possibilities I cannot yet see.
The best way for me to explain this paradigm is to share the story of the Chinese farmer, and it goes like this...
Once upon a time, there was a Chinese farmer, who lost a horse.
It ran away.
And all the neighbors came around that evening and said, “that’s too bad.”
And he said “maybe”.
The next day, the horse came back, and brought with it 7 wild horses.
And all the neighbors came around and said, “wow that’s great! Isn't it?”
And he said, “maybe”.
The next day, his son was attempting to tame one of these horses while riding it,
And was thrown off it and broke his leg.
And all the neighbors came around in the evening and said, “well that’s too bad! Isn't it?”
And the farmer said, “maybe”.
The next day, the conscription officers came around looking for people for the army,
And they rejected his son because he had a broken leg.
And the neighbors came around in the evening and said “isn’t that wonderful?”
And he said “maybe”.
The whole process of nature is an integrated process of immense complexity, making it really impossible to tell whether anything that happens in it is either good or bad. You never know what will be the consequences of the misfortune, or, what will be the consequences of the good misfortune.
Be open to the possibilities you cannot yet see!
Paradigm 2: I choose faith over fear.
Woody Allen said, “If you want to make God Laugh, tell Him about your plans.”
The reality is, you can plan for every best and worst case scenario, and you still won’t always know how things are going to turn out. Everything is uncertain. But even in times of uncertainty, where you feel powerless, you still have choices. You get to choose how you walk through the unknown.
One way to walk through uncertainty is to walk in fear, and another option is to walk through in faith. Both faith and fear require you to believe in something you can’t see, the unknown. Which choice do you believe would benefit you?
Brene Brown says, “Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty.”
Have the courage to choose faith over fear.
Paradigm 3: Nothing is impossible, rather, I’m possible!
Audrey Hepburn said, “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says I'm possible.”
Believing in your abilities matters, and is key to your success. Reason being? Your thoughts create your results. It is your thoughts which create your feelings (vibrations in the body), and your feelings are what drive your actions or inactions, and your actions or inactions generate your results.
For example, if you hold the belief that anything is possible, and you believe in your abilities to figure out how to achieve your goal, then your actions will follow in a way which will move you closer to your desired outcome. Your beliefs will be so powerful that they won’t let you stop or get stuck when you come up against the brick wall of frustration. Rather, your beliefs will create thoughts which will help you figure out how to get around, climb over, or bulldoze through the brick wall of frustration.
When you believe you’re possible, everything becomes figure-outable!
Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.”
Anything is possible once you believe in your possibilities.
Paradigm 4: All actions get results and some results are failures.
The goal with this paradigm is to shift you from judgement of failure to being curious and amazed by your failure. Holding this perspective will help you see your failures as more valuable than your successes simply because you have an opportunity you learn more.
Business success, or success in any area of your life, comes from trial and error. The more you fail, the more you learn, giving you more opportunities to develop your confidence.
Paradigm 5: Every moment, feeling, and experience is perfectly orchestrated for my evolution.
This paradigm shifts you from a victim mindset to empowerment. It helps you embody that nothing in life is happening to you, rather, it’s all happening for you. Holding this perspective transitions your greatest struggles into your greatest opportunities, transforming you and your business.
For some, this paradigm might be tough to digest, because you may not always like what you’re going through or experiencing.
Having said that, I invite you to consider that no matter what you feel about an experience, life did something right to help you evolve. Life’s wisdom comes from the ups, and sometimes even more powerfully with the downs.
Now, it’s important to note that paradigms are not absolute facts, they are beliefs. And these 5 leadership paradigms are the 5 things you need to believe, the mindset you need to hold, in order for you to experience and reap the benefits of hope — experience success and well-being.
To recap, the 5 leadership paradigms that will help you create a hopeful future include:
I’m open to the possibilities I cannot yet see.
I choose faith over fear.
Nothing is impossible, rather, I’m possible!
All actions get results and some results are failure.
Every moment, feeling, and experience is perfectly orchestrated for my evolution.
Patrick Overton said, “When we walk to the edge of all the light we have, and take that step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen: there will be something solid for us to stand on, or we will be taught to fly.”
To have hope is to give yourself the gift of being empowered.
If you’re seeking further support in your journey to creating a more hopeful future, then I’d love to gift you with a FREE Coaching Session.
In your coaching session, together we’d create an Inner Game Strategy that would create hope, excitement, and momentum for your future. By the end of our conversation, you will have gained clarity about what you want, the best path forward to achieve it, and you will walk away with at least one major aha about what may be stopping or slowing you down from experiencing and reaping the benefits of hope.
Check out our Services to learn more about our coaching offerings!
If you love podcasts, catch Episode #8, Create a Hopeful Future, on Empowerhouse Life Coaching, the Podcast!