The Psychology of Hope: A Blueprint for a More Hopeful Life with Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe

The ONE Thing

NOVA Media

Business, Careers, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2026

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When the world feels heavy, hope can feel fragile, or even out of reach. In this episode, Jay sits down with award-winning behavioral psychologist Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe to unpack what hope really is and why it matters so much in difficult seasons. Dr. Robyne explains that hope is not the same as optimism. Optimism is often tied to a specific outcome, while hope is the steady belief that no matter what happens, we will find a way through. Together, they explore the psychology of hope, the role of agency and environment, and why small daily habits can help us stay grounded when life feels uncertain. They also talk about toxic positivity, the people who hold hope for us when we cannot hold it ourselves, and how leaders can create honest, steady environments in challenging times. Challenge of the Week: Ask someone, “What are you hoping for right now?” Then follow it with, “May I hope with you for that?” *** To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: the1thing.com/pods. We talk about: [00:00] A Timely Conversation About Hope [01:08] Hope Is Different From Optimism [12:10] Leading With Honesty in Hard Seasons [15:24] The Four Building Blocks of Hope [22:43] Hope Habits That Still Work on a Bad Day [34:26] The ONE Thing Challenge Links & Tools from This Episode: The ONE Thing Operating System Read I Hope So by Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe Free Resources Want to be a guest or share feedback? Email podcast@the1thing.com Produced by NOVA

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, gang, today's episode could not come at a better time. We all just need a little
0:05.1	inoculation of hope in a world that's got lots of bad news. So today we have the award-winning
0:12.0	behavioral psychologist, Dr. Robin Hanley Defoe, three-time bestselling author, to talk about our new
0:16.5	book, I hope so. And we're going to unpack the nature of hope, how it's different from optimism,
0:22.9	and some really simple practices so that we can build more hope into our daily lives,
0:27.8	how business owners can find hope when things feel a little dark,
0:31.0	and how we can hold hope for those around us, which may be the most important thing that we can do.
0:35.4	Enjoy this episode with Dr. Robin.
0:48.9	I'm Jay Papazan, and this is The One Thing,
0:52.9	your weekly guide to the simple steps that lead to extraordinary results.
1:00.8	Dr. Robin, welcome back to the One Thing podcast. I'm so happy to have you back.
1:03.8	I'm so excited to be here, Jay. Thank you for inviting me back.
1:13.8	So your third book, I hope so. Definitely, we're listening to this and reading your book at a time where a lot of us need a little bit of hope.
1:14.2	Yeah.
1:20.5	Let's first define it. You make a really strong case for there's a big difference between hope and optimism. So when you say hope, what should we hear?
1:22.8	First of all, thank you for holding space for this conversation because the world does need more hope right now.
1:28.6	And it feels like right now it's really hard to hold on to it or to find it. So I love that we're
1:34.2	bringing this conversation forward. And when we talk about hope, hope very much is it's a practice.
1:40.7	It's a state of being. And how it differentiates from optimism is I believe that optimism is really attached to an outcome that I hope I get this job, close this deal, meet this partner, have this opportunity. I'm like, it's almost as if it's like, I really want that thing to happen in a particular way. And we call that
2:02.5	optimism. When we think about what hope is, it's a state of trusting that no matter what,
2:09.6	that this is going to work out. So even if we don't get the outcome, it's going to be okay.
2:15.4	Yes, it's trusting the process. It's trusting that things work
	...

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