Optimism versus Hope

Optimism -- "to expect the most favorable outcome"

Optimists and their counterparts, pessimists, are always looking at things, events, situations and perceive them with an either sunny-side up or runny-side down sort of attitude.

You've heard the old adage, "is the glass half-full or half-empty" and the optimist would chime in "half-full!" while the pessimist would lament "half-empty....sigh....". But what happens when there is no water in the glass at all? Or what happens if the glass shatters?

What I'm getting at is that both optimists and pessimists look at life based on facts and their reality. I would absolutely encourage people to have more of an optimistic point of view rather than pessimistic. However, there comes a point in all of our lives when we face harsh realities. Some more than others.

Some deal with chronic sickness. Some deal with the death of loved ones. Some deal with abuse from the past (or even present). Some deal with every day stress. Some deal with feeling absolutely no control over their lives. Whatever it is you have dealt with or still deal with, it is your reality and there are just some things in life we cannot look upon in an optimistic way.

And that is where hope comes into to play.

Optimism is based on the physical evidence. Hope is based on things that are not seen. Hope is faith driven; hope is a desire to want better. Hope is a desire to believe there is better regardless of how the situation actually looks. You can change your attitude and you can change your mindset, but without prefacing hope - optimism will never exist. Or if it does, it will soon tire because this world is full of harsh realities. Even the best optimist will grow weary in their positive outlook without hope.

"Hop" is apart of hope. A hop. A jump. A leap.

Hope is a leap of faith. Without it, despair and depression will take over. With it, we can turn our wants and desires to live a healthy, happy life into reality.