Jenny Cameron Paulsen

“Well, John’s IQ didn’t—and couldn’t—help him bounce back. For all his intelligence, he didn’t have a clue about how to cope with the threat of losing life’s meaning—his reason to get up every morning. And nothing I’d learned from my research on intelligence could actually help John—or my other clients or anyone else I knew—when he needed help the most. So I decided that intelligence is overrated. It is much discussed and celebrated, and it is somewhat important at school and in the workplace, but a high IQ is not essential to a good life. However, hope is like oxygen. As I saw then and continue to see every day, we can’t live without hope.”
― Shane J. Lopez, Making Hope Happen: Create the Future You Want for Yourself and Others

“Sometimes I was fantasizing: I had big thoughts that were pure fun and entertainment about a fast convertible, next summer’s vacation, or retirement on the beach. These gave me a quick high—sometimes followed by a bit of a low. At other times I was dwelling: I hyperfocused my future thoughts on the bad things that might happen, such as struggling to get a job, taking thirty years to pay off my student loans, or never being able to retire. These made me anxious.”
― Shane J. Lopez, Making Hope Happen: Create the Future You Want for Yourself and Others

“You can get there from here.” That favorite saying of Rick’s has become one of mine, too. It’s shorthand for a potent way of thinking about the future. “Here” is the present, which is in some way less desirable than our imagined future. “There” is the target of our longing. And “you” are the one moving yourself from here to there. We expect something from the future, and also from ourselves.”
― Shane J. Lopez, Making Hope Happen: Create the Future You Want for Yourself and Others

“Hope matters. Hope is a choice. Hope can be learned. Hope can be shared with others.”
― Shane J. Lopez, Making Hope Happen: Create the Future You Want for Yourself and Others