This idea occurred to me yesterday and it will not leave me alone. This might sound a little weird and freaky to some readers, but in some sense, this post has written itself.
My initial thought was this;
Hope = Expectation x[1] Desire
I have since read around and satisfied myself that this is the consensus of what hope is (as a verb at least). It is such a powerful word, to the point that many of us associate loss of hope with loss of life itself. “Abandon hope all ye who enter”, wrote Dante, at the entrance to the Inferno (Hell). In Western culture, we are taught that we must never give up hope. I started thinking, “Why is hope so important to us?”
Why is easily my favourite word. A why question signals to me a loose thread, which I can tug on to learn more. So that is exactly what I started doing…
Expectation is the strong belief something [B] will happen. Desire is the strong feeling of wanting something [B]. Instantly a scale and a graph occurred to me, I call it the Hope Motivation Model. Here it is;
If your expectation is very high i.e. you believe [B] will happen, you would score it a 10. If you believe [B] is very unlikely to happen, you would score 1. For the Y-axis, if you felt that you really want [B] to happen, you would score a 10. On the other hand, if you really did not want [B] to happen you would score -10. Both are entirely subjective (personal) views, although even our subjectivity is informed by culture and knowledge. So, we have a range from -100 to +100.
It is equally true that anything wanted (or unwanted) is a goal (conscious or not) and is in competition for resources (time, energy, money, attention, etc…) with other goals. Achieving goals is the transformation of your current unsatisfactory state/circumstance [A] into what you perceive will be a better state/circumstance [B]. This is innate to all of us. If you would like to know more about this, subscribe to my blog and you will receive my Goal Achievement Sheet for free.
On interrogation, the model yields three areas. As with any model, reality is never as clear-cut but the areas are shown schematically below;
Believing that [B] will happen and that you feel that you want it to would score highly and provide a sense of hope. This would lead to hope-based action in a “towards” mode i.e. reward/gain seeking (yellow zone).
Exactly the opposite is true for believing that [B] will happen but you feel like you do not want it to, this would score a “high” negative number. Leading to fear-based action in an “away from” mode i.e. avoiding pain/loss (red zone).
The green zone schematically represents inaction (ambivalence). Here the subjective view is that it is not “shiny enough to chase down” or “scary enough to run away from” i.e. neither wanted nor unwanted. If your belief that [B] will happen is sufficiently low, then again inaction is the result.
In my experience (personally and with others), most ideas, actions, goals and choices tend to fall into this ambivalent zone. I have called it the ambivalent zone because whilst inaction should probably be the result, for many of us this is not the case. Too much thought (time and energy) is put into ideas, goals and choices in the ambivalent zone. If you can, it is better to let them go.
So how can we make use of this model?
It was at this point that I realised I have been intuitively (unconsciously) using this model for a long time. I strongly suspect that we all do in some way.
I could list many uses here, essentially any journey from [A] to [B] for you or someone else is an opportunity to use the model productively. They include;
Overcoming fears – the model gives a clear explanation as to why exposure therapies can work. For example, after the 50th time of handling a spider and no harm has come to you, it is hard to maintain the belief that the spider will harm you. Moving spiders into the ambivalent zone.
Appraisals / performance improvement – I have seen others achieve goals and perform beyond their own expectations by transferring my belief in their capabilities to achieve them. I have also seen careers take-off simply by sharing what I expected a new recruit would go on and achieve. Another way I have seen this work is by associating a “higher” value to a goal. This can be done by asking “What would [B] do for you?” and repeating. Belief that [B] will happen can be reframed by asking “What is stopping you?”
Personal goal setting – for over a decade I have had “hell yeah” and “oh no” goals. If a goal is not one or another, then I scrap it, or put it on hold. I can now quantify it. Hell yeah used to be a 10, it will now be 100.
I will stop here, but hopefully you get the idea. If you don’t, then get in touch and I will help if I can.
Why is hope so important to us?
The journey from [A] to [B] is a heroic journey into the unknown, it is change. I recently wrote, “A positive attitude towards change and the unknown will usually result in a positive outcome. Sadly, the reverse is true.” I think this is why hope is so important to us. Somewhere inside, we know that the universe is more likely to reward us for approaching change and challenge on the front foot, in a hopeful, positive and towards attitude. Read almost any myth, fable, legend or popular fiction and you will observe this again and again. No matter what the circumstances, there will always be hope. I hope that you can use this model to find it for yourself and others.
Do you think hope is important? Is the Hope Motivation Model, right? How would you use it?
Be happy, healthy and helpful
Paul
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[1] Full disclosure, this was originally a plus (+) sign. It was only whilst creating the graph it occurred to me to go back and change it to make it more useful.
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