Wellbeing

Character Strength

“I am realistic and also full of optimism about the future, believing in my actions and feeling confident things will turn out well.”

-VIA Institute on Character

“Fingers crossed”, finding four-leaf clovers, making a wish on a shooting star - kids especially find ways of injecting hope into all parts of our lives. It can be hard to put into words exactly what hope is and what it isn’t, but the kind of hope that we can turn into a character strength are specific hopes that motivate, energise and build confidence within us and that turn into specific actions to help us reach our goals.

An example of this in our families might be “I hope I win my basketball game on the weekend”. This isn’t going to manifest on its own, but if we go to training, improve our skills and turn up well-rested, then we may feel more hopeful and confident that we can achieve this goal.

Hope can also help us to cope with the difficult situations that arise in our lives. Embracing hope and optimism can help us to accept negative events in our lives; if we think of the event being caused externally and temporarily, we are able to bounce back after the event more successfully.

Mel Tattersall

Wellbeing Leader