Hope 3.0

By LuAnn Cooley

As a culture and especially as a country, we have forgotten what hope is. We’ve misinterpreted wishful thinking, fantasy, imagining good times, and expecting life to be without struggle as hope. Most people are pretty much hopeless. They wish they could have a good life, but imagine it will happen without any struggle. The ultimate outcome of that is suicide, lowered expectations, sadness, apathy, and just an all around feeling of being in a funk.
Historically, we've lived through bad economies. pollution, and terrorist threats, including school children drilling for an atomic bomb being dropped on their town and epidemics. The future may have looked bleak, but there was always a feeling of hope. Something has radically changed, but it isn't because we have a more realistic outlook. Realistically, we have more reason to hope than ever in our history.
Hope 3.0 proposes that we are not the end of the world or the end of an era.
If we choose to believe it, we’re at the beginning, a time when we can reinvent ourselves and our way of living, of transferring all we know into creating a life and a world that is much more sustainable, livable, equitable, and even kinder, more compassionate, and full of truly good things. However, this level of expectation requires action--getting up, going out, and looking at the problems full on, and THAT kind of action requires we have a different kind of hope.
Hope 3.0 provides strategies that anyone can use to develop a more positive approach to living. It describes ways to become more hopeful, details actions that will create a hopeful frame of reference, and shows how to develop a hopeful worldview not just for handling the present, but for handing generations to come a future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LuAnn Cooley
• Release date: Oct 8, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301672974

LuAnn Cooley

I am a middle aged if I live to be over 110 nature loving writer, photographer, educator activist who believes that anything is possible and wonder surrounds us.

Book preview

HOPE 3.0

Strategies for a More Positive Approach to Living

LuAnn Cooley, Ph.D.

Photo credit: LuAnn Cooley

Published by LuAnn Cooley, Ph.D.

Copyright (c) 2013 LuAnn Cooley

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 Hope

Chapter 2 Barriers: Minor & Trivial

Chapter 3 Barriers: Apathy & Fear

Chapter 4 Barriers: Ego

Chapter 5 Ways of Being: Personal Power

Chapter 6 Ways of Being: Self-esteem

Chapter 7 Ways of Being: Surrender

Chapter 8: Ways of Being: Trust

Chapter 9 Ways of Being: Personal Empowerment

Chapter 10 Obstacles

Chapter 11 Hopeful Strategies: Forgiveness

Chapter 12 Hopeful Strategies: Congruency

Chapter 13 Hopeful Strategies: Reputation

Chapter 14 Choice

INTRODUCTION

This book is a response to a number of personal stories that came to me from friends and relatives. These stories were honest and raw and full of hopelessness. Since I don’t watch television except for the Walking Dead, I wasn’t sure if this was a trend or maybe there had been an epidemic or perhaps there had been an infestation of some sort. Also, since I live in a fairly isolated place and in an isolated manner, it wouldn’t be totally unexpected to discover there had been some kind of weird apocalyptic event of which I was not informed.

The truth is, I don’t believe any of that. I believe we, as a culture and especially as a country, have forgotten what hope is. We’ve misinterpreted wishful thinking, fantasy, imagining good times, and expecting life to be without struggle as hope. If my analysis is correct, then most people are pretty much hopeless. They wish they could have a good life, but imagine it will happen without any struggle. I’m seeing the ultimate outcome of that, too: suicide, lowered expectations, sadness, apathy, and just an all around feeling of being in a funk.

Well, I’m old and fortunately, old enough to have lived through phases in my life and in the country when the economy was bad, the environment was polluted, and the future looked