Quotes from Shane J. Lopez

Hope matters. Hope is a choice. Hope can be learned. Hope can be shared with others.

Second, not all thoughts about the future are created equal.

Rick talked about hope as a life-sustaining force that is rooted in our relationship with the future. He wrote, "Just as our ancestors did, today we think about getting from where we are now, let's call it Point A, to where we want to be, say Point B.

Hope also walks hand in hand with fear, one of the most universal and most painful emotions. When fear is working for us, it reminds us of realistic limits or alerts us when we're straying from our path to a meaningful future. But fear can also hijack us. Fear gives us only three behavioral options: fight, flight, or freeze.

Sometimes I was fantasizing: I had big thoughts that were pure fun and entertainment about a fast convertible, next summer's vacation, or retirement on the beach. These gave me a quick high—sometimes followed by a bit of a low. At other times I was dwelling: I hyperfocused my future thoughts on the bad things that might happen, such as struggling to get a job, taking thirty years to pay off my student loans, or never being able to retire. These made me anxious.

And sometimes my thoughts balanced fantasizing and dwelling, which were exciting thoughts about my future even while I acknowledged the challenges before me. That's when I was hoping. Hoping felt different than the other types of future thinking. When hoping, I felt compelled to act.

You can get there from here." That favorite saying of Rick's has become one of mine, too. It's shorthand for a potent way of thinking about the future. "Here" is the present, which is in some way less desirable than our imagined future. "There" is the target of our longing. And "you" are the one moving yourself from here to there. We expect something from the future, and also from ourselves.

The future will be better than the present. I have the power to make it so. The first belief comes naturally to us.

John had lost his way, his Point B. He needed new strategies for getting to his old goals, or he needed a new Point B. The next

how we hope—determines how well we live our lives. John's transformations, from thriving to suffering and back