What to Do When the Future Feels Hopeless
Feeling hopeless about the future can be overwhelming. Yet, it's a sentiment many grapple with. Let's delve into understanding this emotion, exploring strategies to combat it, and finding ways to cultivate hope and resilience in the face of uncertainty.
“How to Build a Life” is a biweekly column by Arthur Brooks, tackling questions of meaning and happiness.
“During a pandemic, the future feels difficult and uncertain, and few of us have much control over it, beyond doing our best to keep ourselves and those around us safe.”
- While there is little we can do to change the harsh realities of the pandemic or avoid them, we can change the mindset we use to face them.
How to combat pessimism
Channel your inner lawyer.
- Build a solid case for something other than the worst-case scenario, and argue it to yourself like a lawyer
- Read fewer stories about the pandemic, and try to get a bit more certainty about the future.
Turn constraints into decisions
Start an examination of every problem by listing the apparent limitations on your freedom, and instead of taking them as given, consider how you can change them.
- The healthiest way to look at the pandemic-or any difficult period in our lives-is as an opportunity for improvement and personal growth, without pushing away the negative emotions that are a natural by-product of hard times.