The Speech: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Today alone, hundreds of millions of Americans will experience disappointment caused by hope. We have all heard various clichés about hope. “As long as you have breath, you have hope,” “As long as there’s hope, there’s a tomorrow,” or my favorite: “With hope, anything is possible.” Well, I’m here today to tell you, that’s pretty much all a lie. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said “Hope in reality, is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.” I would like to talk to you for a few minutes today about my personal philosophy on hope and disappointment: one that I find is hard for many to grasp or accept but it is my goal to convince you that it is not as bad as it may sound. Merriam-Webster defines hope as “Desire with expectation of obtainment” or “to expect with confidence.” But what is hope really? A cliché to make us feel better during times of adversity? Or some intangible thing to lean on in time of need? I see hope as the forbearer of disappointment. The one thing you may all find the similar in every case of disappointment you have experienced is that great hope immediately preceded that disappointment. This is an almost irrefutable fact. Disappointment is a byproduct of desire with expectation of obtainment. . . without the obtainment. It is in your power to curb some of the disappointments you will face, and instead handle unexpected adversity with grace and clarity. Now you are probably thinking “What a cynical S.O.B.!” But I assure you that I’m not. I’m actually an optimist. I prefer to optimize whatever unfortunate situation I may find myself in. But I am one who chooses not to place too much credence in hope, but more in action. Hope does nothing. Action does everything. Preparedness facilitates quick action in adversity. Hope just slows you down as you wait for unicorns and rainbows to herald in the dawn of happiness. We, collectively as a nation, need to stop hoping for the best, and realize that the best will not just fall in our lap. We let hope blind us into trusting those who have no business being trusted. Everyone complains about the government, from the president, to congress and the senate, yet every election cycle without fail we will vote the same exact people into office. Some congressmen and senators have been in office for decades. And oddly enough it is those congressmen and senators we usually find ourselves complaining about. We as a people hope “our guy” gets elected president solely on the basis of party affiliation, in hopes that he or she will work for us. We are always disappointed. That hope blinds us to the facts and we still believe that “our guy” still has our wellbeing in mind. We blame these people when things go wrong, when in reality we only have ourselves to blame for continuing to hope they’ll do a better job this time around. Hope will drag us all down. I wonder what would happen if we dropped our hope in these guys and started voting new people into office. Imagine what we could accomplish if everyone in this country stopped hoping and started doing. Not doing with the hope of some wonderful outcome, but doing with the expectation of adversity and trial, prepared to meet the worst outcomes and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. In your personal lives, don’t “Hope for the best and expect the worst,” just accept that working for the best will require you to meet the challenge of adversity. If the outcome isn’t to your liking, well then I guess you have more work to do. Beat life into submission. U.S. Marine Corps General James Mattis gave his Marines rules to live by before going into battle, one of which was “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.” Of course, this may sound harsh most people, but he wasn’t telling his Marines to kill everyone they meet. What he was telling them was when you don’t know what to expect, expect the worst. I know all of you have experienced adversity in your lives and I’m here to tell you life doesn’t get any easier as you get older. However, life is what you make of it. Whether that’s a life of broken hopes and disappointment or a life of accomplishment is squarely on your shoulders. So what should you do? True satisfaction requires action on your part. Without action nothing gets done, but only you can determine what that action is. Of course, you may seek to use the advice of those around you. Wise people accept advice, but the wisdom of accepting advice hinges on the intelligence of those around you. In the end life’s decisions are yours to make. Therefore, the outcomes are yours to own. We will all fail. Failure is part of life. But don’t discourage yourselves. Failures are opportunities to improve – unless you fail at skydiving. In conclusion, always remember that hope makes inevitable disappointment that much worse. Don’t be caught crippled by disappointment borne on the wings of misguided hope. Abandon all hope, and instead pick up your motivation and make great things come out of life’s constant debacles. Thank you.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 18:50:51 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015