Tavis Smiley on Hope, Creativity and Optimism

Tavis Smiley hosts a television and two radio shows on NPR. I have listened to Smiley talk for so many years now he's part of my family.

Tavis just published his 15th book "Fail Up." In this book, he spells out the importance of hope and creativity in the face of failure.

Smiley was asked in a recent interview about a distinction between hope and optimism within the context of the current American economic depression:

What can people do if they are unemployed and don't have any money? Not at a policy level, but an individual level?

He said:

"I give this advice to my family and friends:

One, now is the time to do whatever it is you've always dreamt of doing. There's no downside. You don't have a job, you don't have any money, so there's no downside whatsoever to trying that thing you always said you wanted to do. Going back to school or whatever it is.

Two, this is the best time to be creative, try something new, get those juices flowing. Figure a way out, because the times demand that.

Three, people have to remain hopeful. There's a distinction to be made between being optimistic and being hopeful. Optimism suggests there's a set of facts or circumstances or conditions, something you can see, feel or touch, that gives you reason to feel good about the future. Hope is a different thing. It's having faith in the substance of your future even when there's no evidence that it will be better. Even if you don't have reason to be optimistic, you can always be hopeful. I'm an example of an individual who has built an entire life on hope. Now, conversely, if you give up hope, you ain't got much of anything else."

This distinction is crucial to looking forward in life: It's having faith in the substance of your future even when there's no evidence that it will be better.

Having faith in the substance of your future makes all the difference.