How Do You Want This Year To Be?
Welcome to another New Year. What are your projections for yourself in your personal life and career for this year?
Research in Positive Psychology suggests that how you think about yourself and your situation will impact your results.
When you think of the New Year, what do you hope for? Are you optimistic? In Positive Psychology there are many references to the importance of hope and optimism. Sometimes the words are used as synonyms. While there are similarities between these two attitudes, there are also some differences.
Hope is a feeling that what is wanted is likely to happen. According to Vaclav Havel, a writer and first president of the Czech Republic, hope is a state of mind. He states, “It is not the same as joy that things are going well….but rather an ability to work for something because it is good.” Hope tends to be a more realistic assessment about an issue or situation. When you are hopeful, you focus on the chance there will be a positive outcome and work towards that goal.
On the other hand, optimism is the tendency to take the most cheerful view of matters or expect the best outcome. It does not matter whether or not the outcome is good. Sometimes optimism is accused of not considering all the facts about a situation.
There are times when you might want to have both hope and optimism. For instance if you are ill, you want to be hopeful about recovering and be optimistic because being cheerful has a positive effect on your immune system.
Before you decide what you hope for or what you want to be optimistic about this year, you need to discover what is important to you. Whatever turns out to be important to you at this time in your life determines your values.
Being able to live out your values brings happiness and meaning to your life.
To discover what is most important to you or what will make your life more meaningful, complete each of the following sentence stems six to eight times. Write a different ending each time you say the stem. Use whatever comes to mind without judging your response. If you can’t think of something, invent a response.
- One of the things that is important to me is . . .
- One of the things I hope for this year is . . .
- One of the things I’m optimistic about is . . .
Look back at your responses for each stem. Are most of the things that are important to you reflected in what you hope for or are optimistic about? If not, what can you add or change to make it reflect your values.
As you look at your responses, write down several things you learned or what surprised you. What pattern, if any, do you see?
The last step is to translate one or two of your hopes into goals with action steps. What are some of the initial things you need to do to make this hope a reality?
Following your action steps will move you forward with confidence. You can also do the same for one or two things you are optimistic about.
Meaning Centered Counseling (MCC) which is based on Positive Psychology uses an intervention referred to as ABCD to keep you on the right track. As you progress through the year:
- A – accept what cannot be changed.
- B – Believe and affirm that your life can change for the better; positive meaning can be discovered no matter how negative the circumstances.
- C – Commit yourself to responsible actions regardless how you feel.
- D – Discover the positive and reinforcing effect of following through with ABC.
Following the above suggestions will make this year more meaningful and fulfilling. See this time as an opportunity for you. How you approach the beginning of the New Year will have a lasting affect on how the rest of the year will be for you.
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Maurine Patten, Ed.D CMC, Positive Psychology to the Rescue Mailto:
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