Hope As A Top Strength:

If Hope is your top strength you expect the best in the future, and you work to achieve it. You believe that the future is something that you can control.

If you don’t know your Character Strengths why not take the VIA Strength Test – click here

Virtue Category:

Hope falls under the virtue category of Transcendence. Transcendence describes strengths that provide a broad sense of connection to something higher in meaning and purpose than ourselves.

Key Concepts:

Optimism is closely linked with having a particular explanatory style (how we explain the causes of bad events). People using an optimistic explanatory style interpret events as external, unstable and specific. Those using a pessimistic explanatory style interpret events as internal, stable and global.

Exercises For Boosting Hope:

Write an internal movie that features one of your goals. Picture yourself overcoming the obstacles, developing pathways around and through problems, to reach your goal.

Write about a good event and why it will last and spread. How is this event linked to your actions?

Write about a bad event and how it will pass quickly. Detail how the effect of the event will be limited and who you are not completely to blame.