There’s been a fair amount of conversation recently on this blog about hope, and why people keep going in the face of hopelessness. Sometimes the universe demonstrates lovely timing: along comes a beautiful new ebook from Fear.less, written by Mawi Asgedom, that is all about hope and perseverance. Asgedom packs a lot into a small (six page) package, and what speaks to me most right now is his talk of courage, resilience and advice on how to persevere.
The moment of courage in a human being’s life is when all the indicators around you tell you that nothing’s going to work out, when you don’t have any evidence whatsoever that makes you feel like you’re going to be happy again. At that specific moment, when you can still step up and do your best, just because you believe that outside your own logic and reason it’s possible in the world, and you’re going to fight for it, that to me is what courage is all about.
— Mawi Asgedom
So many stories revolve around a hero faced with the choice to give up or keep going. Those are powerful stories, and they form the core of some of our most hardline cultural beliefs: that perseverance is all we need to win (if you work hard enough, you can do anything), and that stopping equals failure (a winner never quits and a quitter never wins). We put the emphasis on the results. But Asgedom also puts emphasis on the process: on knowing that when faced with the choice, we did our best.
I’m not here to say that persevering is always the right thing; sometimes stopping is the best choice. Billions of human lives have been lived as a string of such choices. I think Asgedom’s deeper point is that we have a choice, and we get to make it over and over again. It’s a lifetime’s journey. If you make a choice you don’t like, then make a different choice next time. Life doesn’t stop when we choose: it only stops when we don’t.
Download the ebook and share it as you like. Sign up at Fear.less to get more as they are released. And let me know what you think.
Wishing you more joy, more love, more hope, less fear.
He does pack a lot into those very short 6 pages. It’s a great message. That Fear.less site is awesome.
My favorite part is the part you pulled out, but (no surprise) I would’ve included this part:
“Regardless of how dire things seem, itâs important to have hope. You need a belief that the current situation youâre in can improve somehow, even if you arenât sure how.”
This helps me clarify how I define these words for myself.
“just because you believe that outside your own logic and reason itâs possible in the world” = hope
“and youâre going to fight for it” = courage
To me what he’s saying is what hope is all about.
And hope is not much good without the courage to act.
And hope and courage have something to do with why we make some of the best choices we make. And for me the really tough choices often start with choosing to find hope.
I’m guessing even Tracy Goss might agree with this line of his,
“If we try to control the end result too much, and weâre so worried about whether weâre going to make it, thatâs paralyzing and weâre not going accomplish anything, and weâll hate the journey. If youâre worried about the worst that can happen, imagine that the worst already happened.”
“Wishing you more joy, more love, more hope, less fear.”
–Ditto.
Hope is one of my favorite subjects, I feel so ambivalent about it. I am an optimist, but kind of a skeptical optimist. Because I’m half Irish, I often say, “don’t tempt the gods.” Maybe this is just because I’m manic depressive and would like to believe denial is possible, even though I know in my insides it’s not. But life is just such a pure pleasure sometimes, who couldn’t have hope?