Making Hope Happen: Create the Future You Want for Yourself and Others

With its cutting-edge research and inspiring true stories of people who create better lives for themselves, their families, and their communities, Making Hope Happen is the first practical guide to the anatomy of hope—how to create, use, and share it.

How do some people make good things happen and bounce back from setbacks? Why do they lead happier, healthier, more productive lives? It’s because they have hope—not because of luck, or intelligence, or money. So, what exactly is hope and how can you get it, too?

Using discoveries from the largest study of hopeful people ever conducted, world-renowned expert on the psychology of hope Shane J. Lopez, Ph.D., reveals that hope is not just an emotion but an essential life tool. Hope is also a leading indicator of success in relationships, academics, career, and business. With Making Hope Happen you can measure your level of hope and learn how to create and share it.

In this newest evolution of positive psychology, Dr. Lopez provides strategies for building a high-hope mind-set and shares uplifting stories of real people—parents, educators, entrepreneurs, young and old people with health challenges, and civic leaders— who create hope and who change their own lives as well as their schools, workplaces, and communities. They include:

• The CEO who befriended a curious nine-year-old, bringing him into the company and transforming his attitude toward school and future goals.

• A young entrepreneur who worked to change laws that stood in his way, recruited friends to support his start-up, and rebuilt from scratch after a fire.

• The college president whose creative fundraising during the worst of the economic downturn kept her neediest seniors in school through graduation.

• The city council members who developed a visionary recovery plan only days after their community was flattened by a tornado.

• Two mothers and a principal who reversed decades of neglect and mismanagement to turn a failing school into a neighborhood magnet.

• A college student who is thriving after two heart transplants, and whose hopeful self-care has been key to her survival.

Making Hope Happen is for people who believe that the future can be better than the past or the present and who are looking for a way to make it so. The message is clear: Hope matters. Hope is a choice. Hope can be learned. Hope is contagious.

Shane J. Lopez, Ph.D., a Gallup Senior Scientist, is the world’s leading authority on the psychology of hope. He has published numerous professional books on what is right with people, including The Encyclopedia of Positive Psychology. He lives in Lawrence, Kansas, with his wife and son.