Lesson #2893 - Hope

One thing I think most people forget about hope (and faith, for that matter) is that it's entirely meaningless if there's no effort behind it, no effort to follow it up. Blind hope, blind faith don't get you anything. And even then, you're only guaranteed a possibility of success when you put the effort in. Which may not be the guarantee you want, but it's still better than a guarantee of disappointment.

There's an aspect of this that should drive us for personal issues and for causes we're passionate about. In terms of careers, in terms of relationships, in terms of personal fitness, that effort is critical. Politics is so often disappointing because we put all our effort into getting people elected, and then don't follow up by continuing to pay attention or make our voices heard or vote in future elections. And when we experience disappointment, well, based on the math, we need to double down on the effort, just to be able to get back to that possibility.

Given a reasonable situation, you should never lose hope and never lose faith. But don't make it meaningless. Never lose effort, either.