[A] Countless psychological studies show the truth: hope, dreams, and goals are the psychological vehicles driving success. [B] In Of Mice and Men, the dream is to leave the life of work and travel behind and live on a ranch, in War Dance, the goal is to do well at the national music competition, and in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Walter Mitty hopes for a more interesting life in a series of daydreams, to ultimately find that he has been living the true daydream. [C]
Hope, dreams, and goals allowed the people portrayed, fictional or not, to strive for more. D] Hopes, dreams, and goals allow people to increase their motivation, perform better, and seek new concepts. [E] To start, hopes, dreams, and goals allow an increase in motivation by giving a person something to strive for. [F] In Of Mice and Men, Candy pitching in money for the ranch gave the necessary motivation for George to actually believe in the oasis of the ranch. In War Dance, the goal of competing and doing well in the competition motivated the kids to actually reach this goal.
In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Walter Mitty’s dream of a more exciting life motivated him to go after the missing photo that would come to be the cover of the magazine. In the article [G] “The Wills and Ways of Hope,” the author writes, “Hope is not just a feel-good emotion, but a dynamic cognitive motivational system” (1). [H] Hope is a step in the path to learning goals for growth and improvement. [l] So, with scientific backing, hope gives a person the motivation to improve. K] “The Will and Ways of Hope” article also explains, “Among female cross-country athletes in particular, the state of having hope predicted athletic outcomes beyond training, self-esteem, confidence, and mood” (2). [L]
Hope is a mindset that does a lot more than it may seem. [M] Hope is more than just dreaming of what can be better; it’s actually doing better. [N] Hopes, dreams, and goals push people to the next level. [E] Next, hopes, dreams, and goals cause better performance. F] In Of Mice and Men, Lennie was intent on being good so that he could reach his goal of living on the ranch and tending the rabbits. In War Dance, the kids were striving to reach their goal of doing well in the music competition, and this made them give their all in their performance, whether on the final stage or during practices.
In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Walter Mitty wants to find the missing photo and goes on all these adventures, which he doesn’t realize he’s doing because he’s focused on the goal of getting his job back. G] The article “The Wills and Ways of Hope” explains that, according to a study, “High hope students… Were also more likely to have graduated and were less likely to be dismissed from school due to bad grades” (1). [H] In comparison to students with low hope, students with more hope were linked to having higher college GPAs. [i] Doing better is an important effect of having hopes, dreams, and goals because it leads to achieving the goal. [j] Studies have shown that hopes, dreams, and goals have many ties to academics. K]
In “The Will and Ways of Hope” by Scott Barry Kaufman, it is written that, “Hope… predicted grades in law school above and beyond LSAT scores and undergraduate grades” (2). [L] The notion of a better future can increase drive to perform better in these students and help them to see the correlation of knowledge to their future. [M] With the a goal in mind, it’s easy to want to achieve it by performing better. [N] Hopes, dreams, and goals can all lead to the achievement of new skill sets. E] Lastly, hopes, dreams, and goals allow people to seek new concepts. [F] In Of Mice and Men, after Candy volunteers money toward the ranch, George truly has the hope to seek an opportunity to leave for the ranch.
In War Dance, the kids from northern Uganda had the goal to place high in the competition, which was a new concept for them because their school usually placed low. In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Walter Mitty seeks new concepts in his life through his constant daydreams and then adventuring out to find the missing photo. G] In “The Secret of Life by Walter Mitty” by Moses Ma, it’s written that, “Our protagonist [Walter Mitty] ends up jumping out of a helicopter into the ocean, survives a shark attack, bikes up and longboards down the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland before it erupts… ” (1). [H]
There are also many other adventures that Mitty goes on in this search, but the point is that it is his goal that lead him to do so. [l] With Mitty’s goal of receiving the missing photo, he is able to find the new attributes to a more adventurous life he seeks. i] In the pursuing of dreams, there is always the risk of failure, but there are ways to change that. [K] In the article “How We Lose Hope and How We Get it Back” by Joe Wilner, it’s written that, “By achieving small steps along the way you can renew hope and continue to stretch yourself further. ” [L] This steps can be taken in the literal meaning or in a figurative meaning. [M] Walter Mitty was taking steps toward his goal by developing a plan, but also literal steps in his trek up a mountain to find an elusive photographer. N]
Hopes, dreams, and goals literally take people places. [O] In conclusion, hopes, dreams, and goals are the driving forces for living a better life through being motivated, having better performance, and the opportunity to seek new ideas. [P] Hopes, dreams, and goals can increase motivation through having the drive to get somewhere. They can be held responsible for performing better because they provide incentive. [Q] With hopes, dreams, and goals comes opportunity to go above and beyond to seek the new. [R]With hopes, dreams, and goals comes the desire for greatness.
