What is the Most Important 4-Letter Word?
Hope.
Even as the news seems to continue to get darker, hope may be the most important 4-letter word in the English alphabet. I read an article recently that spoke to the importance of hope in kids, and how if their parents believe and hope that their children’s futures will be better than their own, that the kids tend to do better in most areas of life. And there is actual research to support that.
Not only can hope positively influence grade scores and performance, but emotionally hope has a significant impact on self-esteem, belief in self, and can help develop a stronger sense of purpose and meaning (Bryce et al., 2020; Fraser et al., 2022). And I see that in my kiddo. When I have hope, she does so much better. And if you need more proof of how important hope is, read on.
Years ago, I read How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie, and in the book he mentions the psychiatrist and neurologist, Viktor Frankl. If you’re not familiar with his name or story, he was from Austria and survived for 2.5 years (1942-1945) in four different concentration camps during WWII: Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Dachau and Türkheim. He lost both his wife and his parents during the Holocaust.
He noted that the reason he and others survived in the camps did so because they had hope for the future. And hope gave them reason to create future-forward goals. Even small goals helped him cope emotionally, and focusing on future goals provided him with the most meaning (Frankl, 2000) - see the full discussion about his philosophy here: NIH article, Bushkin, Niekerk and Stroud.
Even in impossible situations, focusing on small, incremental goals for the future lends itself to hope, and that hope can provide meaning. And once you see how resilient you can be, and those small goals are met, that influences hope for the future even further. Stay strong!
Sources: Siddoway, Cambria (2023) "The Importance of Teaching Kids How to be Hopeful," Family Perspectives: Vol. 5: Iss. 2, Article 3. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/familyperspectives/vol5/iss2/3
Bryce, C. I., Alexander, B. L., Fraser, A. M., & Fabes, R. A. (2020). Dimensions of hope in adolescence: Relations to academic functioning and well‐being. Psychology in the Schools, 57(2), 171–190. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22311
Fraser, A.M., Alexander, B.L., Abry, T., Sechler, C.M., & Fabes, R.A. (2022). Youth Hope and Educational Contexts. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781138609877-REE117-1
Frankl, V. E. (2000). Viktor Frankl recollections: An autobiography. Cambridge, MA, USA: Basic Books. [Google Scholar]
