Exercise 2

1) Who are people you think are successful? Why do you think that?

2) Do you want to be successful? What does success mean to you?

3) Can success mean more than just having nice things or lots of money?

Hope Helps Us Succeed

Did you know that people who have hope do better in their life? Hopeful people have better grades, they do better in their jobs, and they have closer relationships with friends and family.

Hope makes us strong emotionally. No matter what you face in life, you can overcome these challenges and achieve your goals.

The good news is that hope is a characteristic that we can learn and develop. It’s not optimism or positivity, hope is a set of skills and a foundation that we can take with us anywhere. By working on our hope tools, we will become more hopeful and then more successful, too.

Hope is an equal opportunity resource. The amount of money you have, how many friends you have, what your family is like, or where you live does not determine if you are hopeful. You can build hope yourself no matter what, and then once you have it, hope will help you thrive in your life.

Story

Tia lived with her big family, in a small apartment, in a neighborhood in town where it was dangerous to wander the sidewalks. Tia worked hard, but there were always many children, aunts, uncles and grandparents to take care of, so Tia’s family often struggled financially.  Although some of these things were challenges for Tia, Tia had hope.

With encouragement from her grandmother, Tia learned she could overcome any challenges she faced. Knowing she could change her situation and create a good life, Tia was given great hope. She learned that even though she didn’t have everything as a teenager, she could dream big for her life and invest in her future. This hope allowed Tia to keep working hard against the challenges she faced.

With time, Tia graduated from medical school and worked in a hospital taking care of infants and saving lives.  Hope made Tia resilient to the arising challenges in her life and continued to work toward her future.

By finding hope like Tia, you can create a good life for yourself, too.

You may think about your responses to the following questions or feel free to write them down for yourself.

“Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.” Joseph Addison

Hope Exercise

Let’s see how did with Lesson 2 “Why Is Hope Important?”.  Answer the questions below to the best of your ability.  Once you’ve answered correctly, you will be able to move on to Lesson 3.