Hopeful
Part of speech: adjective
Definition: Feeling or inspiring hope.
Part of speech: noun
Definition: Somebody who is hoping for success or victory.
Example sentence: Positive thinking is the notion that if you think good thoughts, things will work out well. Optimism is the feeling of thinking things will be well and be hopeful.
Optimistic
Part of speech: adjective
Definition: Expecting the best in all possible ways.
Example sentence: Basically I wake up in the morning and I think everything's going to be great. I'm really kind of optimistic, and I look forward to a new day. I pick up 'The New York Times,' and I look at the front page and realize that once again I'm wrong. I start to fixate on stuff.