Let me start by saying this: I think we underestimate hope. Hope gets us through tough times. Although sometimes we may choose to give up on hope, hope will never desert us. Hope doesn’t hold grudges. Hope is only a thought away, and a powerful ally. Hope sounds like the perfect companion, but if that’s so, how come we are so quick to give up on hope?
When I hear people say, “I don’t want to get my hopes up,” it makes me wince. Why the heck would you be afraid to get your hopes up?
When was the last time your effort was reduced as a result of getting your hopes up? I’ve never seen or heard of anyone who failed because they hoped too hard. In fact, the opposite is true. When you have hope, and I mean real hope, the chance of succeeding doesn’t get reduced. It’s simply not possible. Hope provides energy. It provides resolve. It provides strength. It provides confidence. Hope can inspire you to do great things. So why are so many of us afraid to embrace hope, particularly when we seem to need it the most? What are we so fearful of?
It turns out there is a penalty for hope. That penalty is disappointment. When you get your hopes up and fail, disappointment is sure to follow. When this happens, we frequently lash out at hope. We tend to blame our failure on the fact that we hoped for something too much. Rather than blaming ourselves for our failures, we curse the concept of hope by saying, “if only I hadn’t gotten my hopes up!”
Do you know what’s worse than the sting of disappointment? The regret that comes with being too afraid to hope, because that particular fear is frequently followed by being too afraid to try… and that just can’t happen. Maybe you could have been successful, but you were too afraid of getting your hopes up, so you didn’t try.
Avoiding hope in order to avoid disappointment just doesn’t make sense, and I hope you agree with that. I say this: Throw caution to the wind, and the next time you are pursuing something that isn’t 100% under your control, give yourself a double dose of hope. I hope you’ll succeed, but if you don’t, try not to blame your disappointment on too much hope. Instead, graciously accept the minor penalty of disappointment that goes hand in hand with having high hopes. Just try to learn from the experience, and get ready to hope some more!
Excellent post!! Hope and Optimism are two of my favorite allies in life.
Thank you Rob
Neil
One thing I know about you Neil is that you are the KING of Hope and Optimism! Glad you liked the piece. Thanks for posting my friend.
I HOPE you never stop writing!
That’s very kind of you. Thanks so much for the post Beth.
Rob,
I love this post! We all give way to many excuses and don’t have enough of hope or faith. We have to keep driving forward. To me, hope keeps us alive and waiting for the next adventure.
Agreed. Hope does keep us alive. To heck with the excuses – let’s get moving on that next adventure! Thanks for posting Craig.
Great article! “Hope provides energy. It provides resolve. It provides strength. It provides confidence. Hope can inspire you to do great things.” Well said and I like it! Yes, it’s the HOPE keeps us going.
Hope is totally underestimated and under-appreciated. Keeping hoping Hui!
Rob, your connecting hope with energy and resolve reminds me of the quote I heard somewhere: “Persistence will succeed when all else fails.”
I think I’m going to put that quote up in my office! Thanks for the word’s of advice, and for posting Cliff.
I just received a disappointment today and I did have my hopes up. Your message is good. I think disappointment can be a hard pill to swallow sometimes especially when you can’t control the outcome
Well… I’m sorry to hear of your disappointment Ann Marie, but remember this: Hope comes at a price, but it’s a price worth paying. You’re right, we can’t control the outcome, but we can control our effort. If your effort was 100%, walk tall, learn from this, and keep going. Please feel free to reach out to me directly if I can help you assess what happened and get that hope going for the next opportunity that presents itself. Reach out on LinkedIn.