There’s a thoughtful quote from the movie Saving Mr. Banks where Walt Disney says, “In imagination [because that’s what we storytellers do] we restore order with imagination, we instill hope again and again and again.”
I love thinking about imagination as giving us hope. Imagination is much like cultivating optimism, which is the Positivity Project focus this month. Imagine your best life a year from now, five years from now…can you do it? Here are some guidelines to help you get started.
Create a Best Possible Self Diary
Sit in a quiet place for 20-30 minutes. Write about where you’d like to be in one, five, and 10 years from now. Visualize a place where everything has turned out the way you’ve wanted. Write it down. Once it is visualized, your brain starts to think about how to make it so.
Hope Theory
Hope is defined as the perceived ability to produce pathways to achieve desired goals and to motivate oneself to use those pathways. Learn more about Hope Theory by clicking here.
Cultivate optimism this month and take time to imagine your hopes and dreams coming true!
Every morning since my office, the Oregon Board of Parole & Post-Prison Supervision, has been working from home I have sent out a morning email telling of the celebrations of the day, maybe a personal story, a little history behind some of the celebrations, and I send it with a personal prayer that it will help my teammates smile. It has worked! Everyone has told me they look forward to my emails and they do bring morning smiles on hard days. I was wondering if you would like me to begin ccing you in on these emails for a bit of a smile for you too since you were partly my inspiration.
Hi Debra,
I would love to be cc’ed in your email if it’s something you are still doing. 🙂
Thanks, Jessica