Hope is something that I try to inspire in people with every interaction. Hope has a practicality to it that many people do not consider that makes it much more than wishful thinking. Let me explain:
When all hope is lost, we are left with despair. Despair is not a pleasant emotion and is one that can disengage people from their potential futures. Many people choose not to hope given the possible despair that can arise as a result of their hope not succeeding.
Hope can be considered a blend between a desire for something to occur and a belief that it will occur. Desire + belief = passion for what is possible = hope
Each of these elements has a practical aspect, “what is possible”. Idle belief, without any action, is not enough for hope to exist. Hope requires that there is a possibility of something actually happening.
To believe otherwise can lead to disappointment and despair. A belief in something that has no possibility of occurring is not something to truly hope for. That said, hope requires courage to face disappointment that the failed hope can create.
At the same time, hope is not something that is inevitable or solely within your own control. Hope is a wish for something and a belief that it is possible, to the point where you are encouraged and inspired to take actions that will increase the likelihood of its existence.
These actions towards hope make hope different than wishful thinking. Excessive hope (wishful thinking), where the odds of success are inflated, is not hoping well. On the other end of the spectrum, discounting all possibilities to hope for is also not hoping well.
Hoping well is a balance between the two, of being realistic about possibilities and their risks. Of holding open options when you should, and closing them when you should not. There is courage to search for possibilities when it appears they do not exist.
Many people, when faced with potential disappointment, choose not to search for possible futures that would satisfy their desires. Instead, the fear of disappointment and pain becomes debilitating, preventing even the first step forward down a hopeful path.
This paralysis of action can lead to a perspective that changes little and a lack of belief that the world can change for the better, that each individual can change for the better.
Regardless of the state of our own lives and that of the world, we can always hope to learn. We can recognize that we may not have understanding about how or why something has happened, but we can hope to learn that we will one day.
But if we do not take any steps forward, towards learning and improving, of making hope a possibility, it will be left behind, leaving us with despair.
So, we can take a realistic assessment of our lives and our desires. We can identify possibilities that enable us to believe that our desires are possible. We can identify at least one action that can set us on the path of achieving them, a step towards a hopeful future.
We can recognize that despair after failure is not a pleasant emotion, but neither is a fear of failure so strong that we do not take action in the first place. We must develop our courage to face difficulties and disappointments, knowing that we can always hope to improve.
The hopeful actions we take towards improvement do not need to be large. The first step is the most difficult, and it can be a small one. 1% better every day for a year is 37 times better than last year.
Small actions build up over time to have large results, making things that seemed impossible before, possible. So if we can take our desires and our believes and find a way to build towards them, we can inspire hope in ourselves.
This self-inspired hope can act as a beacon to others, providing them with a flame that rekindles hope in themselves. The more people that hope in a practical way, the more we will be able to inspire collective change in the world.
What are your desires in life? What actions can you begin taking that will enable you to believe that they are possible? What do you hope for?
If you found this helpful or interesting, I would love to hear your thoughts! The more we learn how this practice helps each of us, the more we can collectively improve. Please feel free to leave questions or comments below.
This is the last post in the series: Philosophy for Troubled Times.
Find the full list of mindful thoughts here.
