Skills are not the only thing that shape what we are capable of. Sometimes it is something invisible.

Hope.

In 1957, a Johns Hopkins professor named Dr. Curt Richter conducted a controversial experiment with rats that has been debated ever since because of the troubling ethics involved.

Researchers placed a group of domesticated rats into jars of water. Some gave up quickly, while others kept swimming for days before finally succumbing. Then they repeated the experiment with wild rats, animals known for their strength and endurance in the water. Surprisingly, every wild rat died within minutes.

Richter wanted to understand why. So he tried something different. In the next test, just before the wild rats were expected to give up, he lifted them out of the water briefly and then placed them back in.

The results were stunning. Rats that had previously lasted only minutes now swam for more than 60 hours. The researchers concluded that the brief rescue had changed the rats’ expectations about survival. They now believed survival was possible. In other words, hope had entered the equation. Hope extended their capacity by nearly 240 times.

Here is what I take from this unusual study. Hope expands our capacity more than we realize. Just think about it. When you believe nothing will ever change, hope disappears. And once hope disappears, engagement and your best work soon follow.

But when hope enters the picture, something shifts. Effort increases. Endurance expands. You keep going longer than you thought possible.

Clearly, hope expands your capacity.

So the question is simple. What will you choose to be hopeful about today that might expand your perceived limits?

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