The Case for Hope

Assessing Best Ways Forward

HOPE is a good thing.

Hope is good for the body, for the mind, and practically-speaking.

Hope helps us manage stress, helps us cope, and makes us happier. Hope brings peace and signals trust. Studies show that while hope can be passive in particular contexts, more often it is an active, forward-looking approach to life that moves us closer to who and how we want to be.

Hope implies possibility.

Hope motivates and keeps us going.

Scientific and emotional frameworks related to how hope functions in the mind and body distinguishes distinct types of hope, primarily Grounded Hope and False Hope:

• Grounded Hope is anchored in realistic assessment of obstacles. It acknowledges the severity of a situation and finds paths forward.
• False Hope is based on unrealistic expectations and oftentimes, on passive daydreams that are not connected to effort or action. 

Grounded hope breeds resilience, patience and a long view which helps facilitate creative ways forward. Grounded hope takes us far and is the focus of this article.

Hope isn’t related to IQ, occupation or income. It’s about optimism, framing, and a persistent belief in what’s possible.

Grounded hope doesn’t ignore facts or make excuses, and it is not involve delusional pretending. Grounded hope involves acknowledgement of the truth of a situation while looking toward possibility and best ways to move forward. 

Poet Emily Dickinson on the Power of Hope

Born to a prosperous Massachusetts family, Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) dazzled and frustrated her teachers with her exceptional originality of thought. She was prolific, reclusive, and is recognized as a foundational figure in modern literature. Dickinson wrote nearly 1,800 intensely emotional, intellectually-sharp poems know for their unique punctuation and brevity.

Dickinson lived most of her life secluded in her home where she read voraciously and penned powerful, often fragmented poems on metaphysics, simplicity, beauty, life and death. Hope is a Thing with Feathers (1861) is one of Dickinson’s most widely-read works:

Hope is a Thing with Feathers (1861)

Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul

And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all

And sweetest in the Gale is heard And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm

I’ve heard it in the chillest land And on the strangest Sea

Yet — never — in Extremity, It asked a crumb of me.

Dickinson shows that like the bird in her poem, hope is an elegant, resilient, beautiful force that perches in the body and psyche. Like the bird in her poem, hope provides wordless encouragement without expecting anything in return. Hope shores us up and persists through adversity, offering light whatever the circumstances.

The take-away?

Grounded hope and optimism are superpowers many fail to recognize.

Not pie-in-the-sky optimism.  Optimism that's anchord in acknowledgement of obstacles, and in honest assessment of the severity regarding what's ahead. Optimists of this type solve even the biggest problems without being paralyzed by them.

In my own career, this mindset has transformed how I operate. It has helped me deliver tough news while keeping things energized, has helped me pivot, follow-through, and lead.

Clear-eyed assessment combined with let's-go action helps orient individuals, teams - even entire companies - toward what's possible.