Hope structures your life in anticipation of the future and influences how you feel in the present.

Similar to optimism, hope creates a positive mood about an expectation, a goal, or a future situation.
Such mental time travel influences your state of mind and alters your behaviour in the present.
The positive feelings you experience as you look ahead, imagining hopefully what might happen, what you will attain, or who you are going to be, can alter how you currently view yourself.
Along with hope comes your prediction that you will be happy, and this can have behavioral consequences.

Having hope is to imagine a positive outcome.
The directive of many motivational principles is to visualize what you want and imagine positive outcomes so that your behaviour is unconsciously structured to create them.

The way in which a hopeful person handles disappointment differs from those who are not.
Even if the present is unpleasant, the thought of a positive future can be stress-buffering and can reduce the impact of negative events or disappointment.
Being unrelentingly optimistic about the future helps you to recognize that you are adaptable and capable, enabling you to reassure yourself that you will get through a tough time.
Having a powerful hope that you will adapt also provides a limitlessly positive version of the future.
Those who are hopeful and optimistic can make excuses for negative outcomes, while the pessimist may become resentful or negatively preoccupied.

– Mary C Lamia Ph.D.

What is the real meaning of hope?

Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one’s life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions include: “expect with confidence” and “to cherish a desire with anticipation.” – Wiki.

Research shows (hope) it’s a crucial element of our physical and mental well-being.

People who have a higher level of hope have healthier habits:
They sleep and exercise more, eat more healthy foods and practice safer sex.
They also have fewer colds, less hypertension and diabetes, are more likely to survive cancer and have less depression.

Hope is the belief that the future will be better than the present and that you have some power to make it so.
It differs from optimism, which is the belief that things will work out no matter what you do

When people lose hope, it’s because they are focusing on obstacles.

You can do this at home. Focus on something that excites you.

“It reminds you what hope feels like,” says Shane J. Lopez, a psychologist and senior scientist at Gallup and author of a 2013 book, “Making Hope Happen.”
He also recommends doing what you do best—it will give you a boost in confidence and mood.
It is also important to spend time with the most hopeful people you know. “Hope is contagious,” Dr. Lopez says.

– Elizabeth Bernstein.