How can we stay hopeful when the world is gloomy as f**k?

Anyone who reads the news knows that optimism isn't trending right now. However, to stay hopeful we need to believe the future is better than the present. How exactly do we do that?

“Do you believe the future will be better than the present?”

This question captivated my attention for several weeks in the autumn of 2023. I read it in a book by Shane Lopez, a psychologist who devoted a large part of his career to studying hope. According to him, this question serves as the ultimate measure of hopefulness; that is, individuals who feel hopeful believe the future will be brighter than the present. 

Now, I’m an optimistic person. I definitely believe my future is better than my present because I’m committed to personal growth, curiosity, adventure and things that at least seemingly help me become a more rounded person. But on a more worldly scale, believing that the future will be better than the present, is a trickier equation.

In this day and age, faith in a positive future isn't a given. Amidst news of conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, the looming possibility of Trump’s re-election, the cost-of-living crisis and record-high temperatures in the world's oceans, the prospect of a brighter future seems obscured.

How can we justify believing the future will be better than the present? Even if we try convincing ourselves that the world is fundamentally good, can we truly, wholeheartedly, believe in a better future? Or are we just faking it?   

At the root of Lopez’s question is the idea that hope is a belief, not a condition. This means that regardless of what we witness in this world, we have the choice to believe in a positive or negative future. The decision lies with us, not with the news media, scientists or our cynical friends. 

We choose to see the future in a certain light and whatever we believe about the future will guide the actions we take today.

The word action is important here: according to Lopez's philosophy, merely believing in a better future isn't the sole measure of hope; we also need to believe in our role in shaping that future.

Lopez shares an example of a suicidal man whose faith in his future changed when he started to identify and claim his agency. This goes to say that viewing the future as something passively given to us doesn't inspire much hope, but recognizing our role in shaping it does.

This is where the belief in my personal future and the belief in the world’s future coincide. If I believe I have the power to change things, I have a better chance of believing things will get better.

Giving up doesn’t get us anywhere

In a recent The Guardian article, climate journalist Graham Readfern shared a conversation he’d had with climate scientist Lesley Hughes.

Hughes viewed hope as a strategy instead of a feeling:

“Because if you don’t have hope for the future, then you give up. If I give up, if all of the other scientists give up, if all of the other advocates and people that care give up, then we are lost.”

This idea goes beyond the climate crisis and extends to all areas of our lives where we feel a lack of hope.

If we give up, we get lost.

Giving up equals not taking action. Giving up equals sitting down and just watching the world burn in front of our eyes. 

And to be very honest, isn’t that what most of us are doing?

Because we feel so helpless amid all the chaos in the world, we don’t take action because knowing which action to take seems too difficult. How can I save the planet when the richest decision-makers are mindlessly flying their private jets to climate conferences? How can I do something that will stop the war in Ukraine? What effect will my actions for liberty, diversity and inclusion have when so many people in power seem to think that closing borders, building walls and increasing polarisation is the right strategy for the future? 

An intellectual approach doesn’t necessarily make us any more hopeful. Knowing more about the complexity of the world’s problems doesn’t encourage action. Instead, it may paralyse us. When the gap between the world’s massive problems and my own agency becomes too big, it gets difficult to do anything. It’s like trying to climb a skyscraper. The frustration of not being able to do anything gives rise to frustration, anger, apathy and hopelessness – none of which can contribute to anything constructive.

I can’t change the course of international politics, that’s not a one-person-size problem to solve. Understanding my agency is about understanding the scale at which I can operate. And understanding the scale means focusing on the world within my reach and around me.

So next I’ll clarify, how we can start to unravel our agency by offering a very personal example.

How volunteering at a dog shelter helped me identify the scale of my actions

Not too long ago, I started volunteering at a Portuguese dog shelter called Cadela Carlota. The place does amazing work to help rescue dogs stay healthy and social before they can find a home. They were looking for volunteer dog walkers. As a dog lover, I immediately felt called to help.

I go there on the weekends to walk a few dogs and socialise with them. I give them a few hours of my day. With the help of me and the other volunteers, all 80 dogs get walked on the weekend, even twice if enough people show up.

However, they only get walked on the weekends and on Wednesdays because those are the days they can get enough volunteers to come in.

It breaks my heart that the dogs can’t get a proper walk every day. It also pains me to know that some of them will spend the rest of their lives at the shelter. And when I start to think about how many dog shelters there are in the world and how unnecessary it is that people buy dogs from breeders when there are so many rescue dogs looking for a home, frustration and hopelessness take over me.

My little effort of dog walking on the weekends seems too small, too insignificant in the big picture.

This is where I need to stop and narrow my gaze. I need to bring myself back into the present moment and the world I can see and feel around me. I need to shift my focus to the actions I can take.

It’s in this present moment where my hope resides. It’s in this present moment where I need to stay to be connected to that hope. Worldly thinking is not helpful, it’s counterproductive.

I need to forget about the statistics, the other dog shelters, the people who don’t get it, the sad stories about rescue dogs and focus on what I’m doing in this moment to help.

My actions alone won’t change the bigger picture but my actions combined with the actions of others, who also keep themselves motivated by the present moment, can result in something impactful.

I firmly believe that problems caused by human action can also be cured by human action. And problems caused by masses of people will also need masses of people to solve them. I can’t do it all on my own. But I can be one of those people.

Staying present is the key. Staying focused on the real world around us instead of the news and the internet is the key.

That is why hope is a mindful practice. That is why things like meditation help to induce hope. But let’s go into that another time in more detail.

So where do we start replacing apathy with hope?

Begin with Lopez's question: Do I believe the future is better than the present?

Then narrow it down to a personal level. Disregard the world's issues, forget about divisive figures, and focus solely on yourself and the world within your reach.

What are the things that you care about in your life or the world?
What small action could you take to make yourself feel a bit better about the things you care about?
What actions have you taken lately to contribute to a more hopeful world?

Your small actions may seem irrelevant or selfish but they don’t live in a vacuum. Even the seemingly selfish things you do for yourself can have a positive impact on the world.

Just think about the difference between spending a day with anyone who speaks bad about others, complains about everything and doesn’t have any ideas or agenda to do anything about the causes of their complaints. What impact does the time you spend with this person have on your energy and feelings? Does it motivate you to take positive action?

And then, imagine spending a day with the total opposite of this person: someone who is optimistic, full of ideas, wears a smile on their face and treats you with kindness and attention. Surely you’ll leave the latter interaction feeling more charged and optimistic about people.

Even if we can’t prevent the soldiers from picking up their guns in Gaza, we can provoke peace in our own family, community or workplace by taking responsibility for the actions and presence we bring into them. 

Even if we can’t stop big oil companies from destroying the planet, we can look at our own climate footprint and decide to take active steps to cut down our intercontinental flights or eat more vegetarian meals. 

Even if we can’t turn our bad bosses into masterful, empathetic leaders, we can make sure if we ever end up in their shoes, we have the tools and skills to be better than them and positively impact the people we work with. 

These are all small actions but not irrelevant actions.

Writer Alice Walker once said: “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”

Don’t give into apathy and gloominess because you think you have no choice. You do. 

Claim back your power, focus on the small picture, and see that hope follows.

Thank you for reading. By doing so you are helping me believe in the effort I put into this newsletter.

Every action counts.

With kindness,
Aurora