Hope vs. optimism: Can someone be hopeless and optimistic?

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf” – Hebrews 6:19

Is being hopeful the same thing as having an optimistic world view? The simple answer is no. Hope is weighty and protective through difficulties and a part of healthy spirituality. When someone feels hopeless, they’ve lost a belief in their source of ultimacy or they feel that they are powerless over a situation. When someone is pessimistic (as opposed to optimistic), they think that things will not work out, no matter what they do.

Hope provides nourishment for our spirits, and many faith traditions encourage people to hope.

What is hope?

Hope is more than an emotion. It is a virtue – a habituated pattern of behavior involving beliefs, goal-setting, and a sense that we have a role to play in the good things that will come. Definitionally, hope is an optimistic state of mind and reflects a desire for something positive to happen. It can also be defined as an expectation of fulfillment or success.

Being hopeful is good for you and can significantly improve mental and physical well-being by providing motivation, resilience, and a positive outlook on life, potentially leading to better coping mechanisms and healthier behaviors. Research suggests that hope is linked to lower levels of stress, anxiety, and depression, and can even contribute to better physical health outcomes.

Being hopeful is a virtue.

Being hopeful can become part of our character – a way of being that reflects a belief that good things will come, no matter what. In the Christian faith, hope comes from God’s promises, and Christians are instructed to be hopeful. No matter the faith tradition, being hopeful, if practiced, can become part of a person’s character and identity. Thus, by habituating hope it can become part of a person – “She’s a very hopeful person,” or “His hope inspires me.”

What are virtues?

Virtues are habituated patterns of behavior where individuals seek excellence, or what is good and right. Virtues are rooted in people’s beliefs, their practices, and their relationships, and the development of virtues are influenced by contexts and the systems in which they develop.

For example, honesty is generally considered a virtue, but the degree it’s valued and the situations where it’s expected can vary significantly. The same can be said of hope. It might seem naive to be hopeful in certain contexts, especially when people have belief systems that don’t ground them in hope.

Overall, we think of virtues as a way of acting that reflects high moral standards, even when not necessary. In other words, virtues become character traits that are deeply entrenched in us.

What is optimism?

Optimism, as opposed to pessimism, is hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something. Optimism can be thought of as a worldview.

Psychological research indicates that optimism is beneficial for our mental and physical health, with studies showing that optimistic people tend to experience higher levels of well-being, better stress management, stronger immune function, and even increased longevity compared to pessimists. Being positive is really good for the quality of our lives.

What’s the difference between hope and optimism?

From the definitions above, one might surmise that optimism and hope are interchangeable concepts, but these concepts are distinct, and from a Christian theological perspective, hope is something Christians are instructed to do. Hope comes from a deep assurance that all will be well, even in the face of crises or observing a sometimes scary world.

Hope is something that comes from a Source, as well as something we can aspire to and habituate with practice. In this way it becomes a way of being for us. Virtues grow and develop through practices and supportive relationships, and are rooted in our deepest held beliefs about what is true and how to live.

Hope involves trust that we are part of something bigger, while optimism is more of an approach to life. Being hopeful can lead to a more optimistic approach to life. Both optimism and hopefulness are worldviews, but optimism isn’t necessarily rooted in theology or beliefs. Both optimism and hopefulness evolve from a sense of human agency, or the human power to influence outcomes. With hope, there are reassurances from God, and a command from God to practice it.

For example, people can be optimistic that humans will find solutions to address Global Warming because of evidence that humans have continually innovated and created technologies to address problems. People can also be hopeful that humans will find solutions to Global Warming, even when there is evidence to the contrary. Believers continue to have faith that God will be with them and that they will have abundant lives if they believe in Him. According to scripture, God promises that “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” –Revelation 21:4

Can someone be hopeless and optimistic?

The simple answer is yes. The world and humanity are full of complexities and seeming contradictions, yet we understand that humans are capable of holding two things at once. We know that both sadness and joy, anxiety and excitement, as well as other emotions, can exist together. Hopelessness and optimism can coexist, as well. Hopelessness means we feel powerless to improve our situation. Optimism is the belief that life, in general, can improve, but it might be out of our hands. We can believe both at the same time—that life has the potential to get better, but that we don’t have a role or influence over the outcome. If we lose hope, it is often linked to a loss of a certain set of beliefs or our sense of power to influence the world around us.

Hope and optimism are similar, but not synonymous. Optimism is really about an individual’s state of mind. It can lend itself to “rose-colored-glasses” thinking or lead to toxic positivity that does not acknowledge negativity or suffering. On the contrary, hope involves sources of hope that are beyond the self–whether from God or others–making hope more powerful than optimism. In addition, hope acknowledges the complexity of life and that although the odds might be unfavorable and that things may look devastating, despite it all–everything will ultimately be ok. Two main components of hope identified in research are receptive and agentic hope:

What is receptive hope?

Receptive hope is the idea that hope comes beyond ourselves. In other words, we receive hope from various sources–whether God, our families, mentors, or even ourselves. For example, in a Thrive research project, interviews with young people living in poverty found that youth had hope because of their belief in God, because of help they received from others, and in themselves because they had learned skills that would allow them to make a living.

What is agentic hope?

Agentic hope emphasizes personal agency and the ability to initiate and maintain action towards a goal. In a sense, when people feel free to pursue what they hope for–whether that’s pursuing a goal or if wanting to help another person, they are experiencing agentic hope.

We’d like to convince you that there are always reasons to hope, because we can make small steps to improve the places where we live and work. We can work to improve our relationships, and we can work to improve ourselves.

What to do if you or someone you love are feeling hopeless

If you or someone you know is feeling extremely distressed or hopeless and needs to talk to a counselor, please call The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) to speak with a skilled counselor.

If you are seeking and having trouble finding a longer term counselor, click here to find help.

If you or someone you love is seeking to regain hope, our research shows that people can find hope, even in the most dire circumstances, through these sources.

God or Transcendence: Even if someone has moved away from religion, they need a source of beyond-the-self hope. Sanctified hopes, where they are focused on pursuing God’s purposes either directly or indirectly, might not be available, but a source of beyond-the-self hope could come from beauty or beliefs that we are part of something much bigger and we have a role to play in making things better.
Ourselves: We can remind ourselves of our strengths and skills or ask someone to remind us if we can’t recollect them. We can reflect past experiences of overcoming difficult situations or when we made even a small impact on another.
Family Support: Families help us to understand that we are loved and capable. In the best cases, our families are our home base, a safe place to return when we need nourishment and encouragement.
Teachers or Mentors: We need wise people who are ahead of us and whom we trust for advice and guidance.
Social support: We need more than just our families and teachers. We need a network that supports a hopeful view of life and values that are aligned with our own. This group provides a broader network, vision, and accountability.
Friends: Our friends go through life with us, supporting us, helping us to better understand what we believe, how we should act, and they encourage us to be brave when tough situations arise.

You can use the practice here to talk with someone you love and offer hope.