Hope can help us through dark times with promises that it will get better, but what if it doesn't? And what happens with false hope? Something you hope for might help you with a circumstance, but some people just hope for something better and do nothing about it. Having hope can be good, but not having too much hope. In the case of false hope, where what you are hoping for has almost no chance of happening, why bother constructing that hope in the first place? Hope seems like a mind trick that we use to deceive ourselves. I think of it as a sort of temporary solution. Not surprisingly, there have been psychological studies about hope and one found that college students who were low in hope in their first year had worse degree results three years later. Pessimistic people as I tend to be can't really have hope.
Expectations are hard not to have. Whenever we make any decisions, even about little things, we have to think of what can happen from those choices. If we expect something to happen and it doesn't, it's really disappointing. That's why I avoid having any type of expectations or I at least try to lower my expectations to be realistic. With low or no expectations, then either your expectations are met or you get better than what you expected. Win-win situation. With high expectations usually comes disappointment. And one of my least favorite things is disappointment.
Some people have such high hopes and expectations that they can't be reached. And people are surprised when they can't accomplish things they want to. Setting the bar too high isn't good.
"Experience has taught me that interest begets expectation, and expectation begets disappointment, so the key to avoiding disappointment is to avoid interest."
I agree with you, but to ofset the pessimism here's a counter argument XD I like "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." My lacrosse coach always says that even though we hardly ever win games, our goal should be an undefeated season. Even if we don't have an undefeated season, we'll still win more games than we would if we didn't have that goal, just because it made us work harder to achieve it. I think if you have hope and expectations of things that you can control, it helps you work harder to fulfill your expectations. If they are things out of your control, it makes sense to prepare yourself for the worst.
ReplyDeleteSometimes hope takes people out of reality, which isn't a good thing, but that makes me think of the guy in A Day in the Life who, even though he's in a prison camp, is perfectly content because he believes he will go to heaven one day. Having hope for things to work out for the best but never doing anything to make that happen is not good, but hoping for the best in situation that is out of your control is better. Sometimes hope for the best is the only way to make things better.
But even if you do reach the stars you didn't make it to the moon which is still disappointing.
ReplyDeleteAnd clearly Shukhov needed hope because if he didn't have any he would have just killed himself and got it over with xD