The challenge – In order to increase wellbeing, individuals need to know the powerful ingredients to put into the mix – they need to know the key drivers of wellbeing.
 
The science – Cutting-edge science shows that being hopeful is a key ingredient to both achievement and high wellbeing.   
 
The solution – Becoming more hopeful is possible, and hope provides many performance and wellbeing advantages.
 
 
A chocolate cake without coca is probably a crap chocolate cake. Likewise, there are many key ingredients to high wellbeing - perseverance, conscientiousness, self-efficacy, optimism, frequent positive emotions, passion, good social connections, inspiration, the list goes on. It is unlikely that a person will have high wellbeing if they do not have a bunch of these ingredients – i.e., they are not optimistic, passionate, they don’t experience frequent positive emotions, or have good social connections etc. In particular it is unlikely they will have high wellbeing if hope is not part of this wellbeing mix – try imagining a person who has good social connections, is passionate, and has high self- efficacy, yet is not at all a hopeful person. Quite hard isn’t it! Although many ingredients are important in the wellbeing mix, hopefulness is particularly undervalued and underappreciated in the wellbeing stakes – in my humble opinion...
 
More recently researchers have been studying hope – what it is, how to build it, and the impact it can have. ‘Hope Theory’ is a theory articulating that the concept of hope consists of both agency and pathways to outcomes. The individual who has hope has 1) the will and determination that their goals will be achieved, and 2) a set of different strategies, skills and strengths at their disposal to reach their goals. Put simply, hope involves both the will to get to their goals (agency) and different ways and strategies necessary to get to their goals (pathways), and hopeful people have a good stack of both of these.
 
Now for the good news. Being more hopeful is related to a range of beneficial outcomes. For example:
 

• Hope is related to goal obtainment. This is because it allows people to approach problems with a mindset suitable to success, thereby increasing the chances they will actually accomplish their goals. Another way of saying this is that life is full of obstacles and being hopeful (i.e., pathways) helps negotiate those obstacles and inevitable twists and turns of life.
• Hope is related to personal growth goals. People who are more hopeful tend to have learning goals – they are actively engaged in their learning, constantly planning strategies to meet their goals, and monitoring their progress to stay on track. For example in education, students with higher hope stay in school longer and get better grades, and in fact hope is a better predictor of academic achievement than IQ. 
• Hope improves creativity. This link between hope and creativity makes sense because hope involves coming up with a number of different strategies (pathways) for obtaining a goal.

 
So the challenge is to foster hopefulness in yourself and in others that you’re frequently in contact with. Doing so will likely lead to multiple wellbeing and performance payoffs.
 
 
For more information:
 
Lopez, S. (2013). Making hope happen: Create the future you want for yourself and others. New York, NY: Atria Books

The challenge – We are evolutionarily built to be adaptive by focusing on the negative and danger, however this is not always good for our lives, relationships, work or health.
 
The science – People who cultivate and experience a high daily dose of positive emotions are more resilient to stress, perform better in life and work, are healthier, and live longer.  
 
The solution – Cultivate and savour more positive emotions.  
 

Emotions. Crikey! For males that word is a bit radioactive, yet for females it’s the North Star. Regardless of gender, we all know people who appear stone cold emotionally, and those who are super sensitive. So is there a meaningful difference here, and what are emotions exactly? Well first there are the negative emotions - depression, anxiety, fear and so on – and scientists have spent a long time studying these and know a lot about them. Negative emotions are actually necessary for us to flourish, so it’s not all about getting rid of them. For example, fear can sometimes be useful or productive, but people don’t want to “feel” fearful. On the flip side are positive emotions – awe, joy, amusement, inspiration, gratitude, hope and so on – which are more of an uncharted territory. These are subtle and fleeting reactions to your current circumstances – they are feelings that come and go. Positive emotions also serve as markers of flourishing, or optimal wellbeing, so they are part of the wellbeing picture. Now let’s go one step further and clarify the distinction between positive emotions and pleasure as these sometimes get mixed up. Positive emotions are triggered by our interpretations of our current circumstances, whereas pleasure is what we get when we give the body what it needs.
 
So why is all this important? What impact do emotions have on us? Well negative emotions, like fear or sadness, can close down our ability to function, while positive emotions, like awe and hope, open us up to possibility, and an increased ability to move forward. To be more specific about this, positive emotions broaden people's “momentary thought-action repertoires” (scary phrase, but basically means their perspective), which in turn serves to build their enduring personal resources, ranging from physical and intellectual resources to social and psychological resources.
 
We also know that emotions are important markers of wellbeing and health. In some of my research when we crunch the numbers and divide people into those experiencing high positive emotions and low negative emotions, vs those experiencing low positive emotions and high negative emotions, we can see a link to health behaviours. For example, when comparing the top 25% of people with high positive emotions verse the bottom 25%, people with low positive emotions, people with more positive emotions drink less sugary beverages and alcohol, eat breakfast more regularly, eat more servings of fruit and vegetables, are more physically active and spend less time sitting. The top 25% also on average rate their general health as “good” compared to the bottom 25% who on average rate their health as “fair”. Similar inverse findings to these are also apparent when we look at the top 25% with more negative emotions (sadness, anxiety) compared to those with less negative emotions.
 
So the take-home message is that positive emotions are worth cultivating, not just as end states in themselves, but also as a means to achieving psychological growth and improved health and wellbeing over time. Rearrange your day and life to get more positive emotions. They aid in making you more resilient to stress, perform better in life and work, be healthier, and live longer. If a drug could do that regularly you would probably pay quite a lot for it, but this one is on the house – so to speak…  
 
 
For more information:
 
Fredrickson, B. L. (2009). Positivity: Top-notch research reveals the 3-to-1 ratio that will change your life. New York: Three Rivers Press.

The challenge – Although people are good at knowing and naming their weaknesses (e.g., procrastination or spelling), in general people don’t know their psychological strengths or indeed capitalise on them (e.g., curiosity, kindness, or bravery).
 
The science – People who use their strengths regularly perform better in life and work, and have greater wellbeing and relationships.  
 
The solution – Identify you strengths and consciously invest in cultivating and employing them.
 
 
Some people just nail it – that presentation, that project, that key goal, that sporting task. You look at them and wonder gobsmacked at how they are so good at what they are doing. Others are the opposite and like fish out of water, pushing that water up hill and looking for the nearest fish bowl. The difference is usually that the ‘nailers’ are using their psychological strengths – both the things they are good at, and the things that energise them.
 
So what are psychological strengths? Personal strengths (also called character strengths) are defined as a “natural capacity for behaving, thinking, or feeling in a way that allows optimal functioning and performance in the pursuit of valued outcomes”. Examples of strengths include being curious, socially intelligent, kind, fair, open minded, great leadership, humorous, hopeful, and showing gratitude just to name a few. So why are strengths important? Well, the academic literature on strengths is really stacking up! In brief, empirical studies suggest that the benefits of increased strengths use include greater wellbeing, higher levels of energy and vitality, greater achievement and goal obtainment, greater sense of authenticity, greater resilience when things go wrong, better relationships, and more frequent positive emotions. In addition, people who use their strengths more are also less depressed and less stressed. We also know, and this is the exciting part, that strengths use can be taught, and there is a strong link between strengths use and wellbeing.
 
The message here is take time out to uncover your (potentially) hidden psychological assets. This will require time, self-reflection and exploration. Ask yourself: What activities give you a buzz? (energy). What activities come naturally to you? (ease). What activities do you simply love to do? (motivation). When do you feel most yourself? (authenticity). Once you are gaining insight into your strengths, then wield them like a laser… Also do a free strengths assessment here: https://www.viacharacter.org/
 
 
For more information:
 
Linley, A., Willars, J., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2010). The strengths book: Be confident, be successful, and enjoy better relationships by realising the best of you. Coventry, UK: CAPP Press.

The challenge – A lot of people don’t find their work satisfying.
 
The science – One of the strongest aspects of satisfying work is the amount of personal meaning it provides. 
 
The solution – Craft your work so that it has meaning for you, or find work that has.
 
 
What’s the point of turning up to work? Because you want income, job security, good working hours? Maybe, but nope, not really. Research tells us that people really want purpose in what they are doing, they want to make a difference, and make a difference to others. This holds true regardless of job role, level, or industry.
 
So what saps the meaning out of work? Well we know that answer to that one too. Take away employees autonomy, limit their variety and challenges available, withhold performance feedback, and limit their potential impact, and you are likely to end up with disengaged employees who ask themselves daily “What’s the point of turning up to work?”.
 
Now it gets a bit more complicated. It also depends on how much you job impacts on others. There is a difference between being a bean counter and a firefighter, so to speak. The single biggest impact on meaningfulness is the belief that your job can and does have a positive impact on others. As previously mentioned in my first blog on connections and relationships, “other people matter”. People want what they do on a daily basis to benefit others and society.
 
So now for the good news. You can make your job more meaningful. Think about the value chain. If you’re a long way from the end users of your company’s products and services, you need to connect directly with them in some way so you can see your impact. Here is an example, in one study when radiologists saw a patient’s x-rays but also a photo of the patient, they wrote 29% longer reports and made 46 percent more accurate diagnoses. Seeing how their work made an impact on others made the difference in outcome. Get to the cold face and see what’s happening, and by seeing the consequences of your work for others, you can find meaning.
 
Now it’s also true that some jobs have less opportunity than other to do this. In these cases you need to craft your job. This involves mapping out ways to make your job and interactions with others more meaningful and contribute more to others. Over and above job crafting, the bigger picture is that you can draw meaning from multiple sources, including family and love, work, religion, and various personal projects – work is but one aspect.
 
So take time out in your busy day to contemplate your impact. You may find thinking about your meaning and purpose, and how it applies in your work, pays dividends in the wellbeing stakes.
 
 
For more information:
 
Dik, B. J., Byrne, Z. S., & Steger, M. F. (2013). Purpose and meaning in the workplace (Eds.). Washington: APA Books.