Negativity begets more negativity. When you hope, new opportunities are created that allow you to grow beyond the problems you have in your life.

But a former prisoner of war James Stockdale has some important words to share about hope: “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline
to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

What did he mean?

At times, it’s critical to hold two ideas in your mind at the same time. You need to remember that you must have hope no matter what, but you must also realize that in the present moment you might not be able to escape a bad situation.

For Stockdale, that meant that he knew that he would eventually leave prison but that it wouldn’t be in the immediate future.

Having such hope can be challenging, because if all you have is hope and you don’t face your present situation, then you will have an extremely difficult time getting through your problems.

I have been in situations that I knew I could not escape. As a kid, I knew that I didn’t have the money or the ability to escape my family’s problems. But what I did have was hope that I could escape and that I would eventually be okay.

Hope is a powerful thing that can lift us up in our darkest moments.

Having the balance between reality and hope is key. We cannot live in a fantasy world and need to face reality. We might have a difficult problem today that we can’t easily overcome. By accepting our current situation and yet having hope for the future at the same time, that can be so hard to do.

When you focus on who you are today, embrace the challenges and keep in mind that the future is available for you to overcome your problems and survive.

Hold on to hope and embrace it but also keep your current reality in mind as well.

Like what you’ve read? Be sure to check out my other posts in my Let Go and Be Free blog.