Hope Drives Effort

That’s one of the prettiest songs I know. Such a beautiful melody to go along with the imagery of life as a long walk through nature, with obstacles along the way, that aren’t as much of an impediment as we make them out to be in our minds.

Hope is a powerful beast.

In the final episode of the first season of the hit Apple TV show ‘Ted Lasso’, the town of Richmond and their fictional English Premier League soccer team Richmond FC, are facing a difficult task. Going into the final game of the season, they need a win to avoid relegation, meaning a loss will drop them to a lower division. Just imagine an NBA team finishing last and having to play the following season in the G-League.

The opponent is mighty Manchester City and the odds against Richmond are stacked. Whenever anyone in town brings up the word hope, it’s met with the response, “It’s the hope that kills us.”

Coach Lasso, being the bastion of relentless positivity that he is, hates the expression. He lets his team know this as he delivers his passionate pregame address.

Lasso points to the yellow sign he taped above the coach’s office door in the first episode. It’s one word, ‘Believe’.

I won’t spoil the rest. But the brilliance of the show and the endearing nature of the character is that, on one hand, he appears to be naively optimistic, always sure that things will be great. While on the other hand, he has a plan. Lasso realizes that it’s not enough to just hope. If he lacked this self awareness, the show would be just silly slapstick. Instead, it’s a show with nuance and heart, and…hope!

I like to refer to it as grounded optimism, the belief that things will work out, grounded by the reality of what it takes to get there.

I’ll ask you a question that Lasso asks his team. Do you believe in miracles?

If you look around, we are surrounded by things that could only be described as miraculous. A smart phone is a miracle of modern technology, something that a hundred years ago could only be thought of as science fiction. But here it is, a little handheld gadget that can bring you any information you’re looking for in an instant. This was a miracle, years in the making, by a multitude of minds who turned hope into reality.

When we see flowers bloom, we’re reminded of the miracle of nature. But that flower needs more than hope to grow. It needs water and sunlight. If that is provided, the belief is that it will become a beautiful flower.

Hope drives effort. It’s not enough to just hope for things, we have to work for them. That’s how every day people can change the world.

I have a firm belief that we will one day have a cure for my disease, FSHD. My hope is real, but realistic. If we can cure this disease, it will be miraculous. But I believe in miracles. That’s why we started the Chris Carrino Foundation for FSHD. That’s why we ask for money to fund research. That’s why we look to inspire others to join the cause. If I didn’t have hope that we could cure this disease, why would I ask for so much from so many? Why would I put so much effort into the work involved? We are not buying lottery tickets. We invest in research and hard work, brains and science. We know it won’t happen overnight, and it won’t be easy. But it will be amazing.

Hope drives effort. This is how you change the world. Nothing happens without putting in the work. The work doesn’t guarantee success. But the only true way to fail, is not to try.

But here’s where being realistically hopeful helps someone be relentless and resilient. Admiral Jim Stockdale, a prisoner of war from Vietnam describe the nuances of hope. (From ‘The Stockdale Paradox’ by Jim Collins)

He said, “Oh, it’s easy. I can tell you who didn’t make it out. It was the optimists. They were the ones who always said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ Christmas would come and it would go. And there would be another Christmas. And they died of a broken heart.”

“This is what I learned from those years in the prison camp, where all those constraints just were oppressive. You must never ever ever confuse, on the one hand, the need for absolute, unwavering faith that you can prevail despite those constraints with, on the other hand, the need for the discipline to begin by confronting the brutal facts, whatever they are. We’re not getting out of here by Christmas.”​

The prisoners who made it were the ones who absolutely believed they would eventually be free, but didn’t put a timetable on it. They put in the work to survive every day, with the HOPE that one day, their freedom would arrive.

I’ll say it again for everyone in the back. Hope drives effort. Believe!

May the song of good hope walk with you through everything.