How to Build ‘Hard Hope’
Hope isn’t just a feeling—it’s a skill and a habit.
Another guest post this week, this time from Apolitical Foundation CEO, the brilliant Lisa Witter. Read the full article on their website here.
How to Build ‘Hard Hope’ in Everyday Life with Curiosity at Its Core - by Lisa Witter
In an increasingly unstable world, hope can seem naive or even reckless. However, new research by Gallup shows that it’s the number one thing people need from leaders, even more than trust. The problem? Not all hope is the same.
Soft hope is passive—the belief that things will improve on their own. Hard hope is different. It acknowledges struggle, faces complexity head-on, and chooses to act anyway. It’s the kind of hope that persists when things look bleak, building solutions rather than just longing for them.
Hard hope isn’t about blind optimism. It’s about staying engaged, asking better questions, and refusing to let fear or frustration have the final word.
The Science of Hard Hope
Hard Hope is rooted in neuroscience, with curiosity at its core.
Curiosity rewires the brain to handle uncertainty better. It triggers dopamine, making problem-solving more engaging, and quiets the amygdala, reducing fear-based reactions. It also strengthens the prefrontal cortex, enhancing critical thinking, emotional regulation, and long-term planning. Curiosity-driven exploration activates regions like the striatum and precuneus, improving attention and memory formation. In short, curiosity shifts us from fear to possibility.
Hope is needed now more than ever. A polycrisis of global challenges collides with social divisions - fueling fear, cynicism, and disengagement. When uncertainty overwhelms us, we freeze, shut down, or assume nothing will change. Hard Hope doesn’t deny these realities—it confronts them. Unlike passive optimism, it demands action. It acknowledges fear and frustration but refuses to let them define the future.
Keeping Hopeful: How to keep acting even when things seem tough
Choosing action, curiosity, and persistence when things feel overwhelming can take physical, mental, or emotional tolls.
Brain science and nature give us clues on keeping hope alive without running ourselves into the ground.
Think of the below as a quick checklist to help you stay grounded, and keep going for the long haul:
Get Outside—Nature is the Best Reset Button
When you feel overwhelmed, step outside. Even just 10 minutes in nature can lower stress hormones, improve focus, and boost problem-solving skills. Walking through a park, sitting by a tree, or taking deep breaths in fresh air can help your brain reset and see things more clearly.
Celebrate Small Wins—Your Brain Needs Them
Hard Hope means playing the long game, but our brains are wired for short-term rewards. If we don’t acknowledge progress, we burn out. Set small, achievable milestones and celebrate them, even if the more significant challenge is still ahead. Little victories keep dopamine (your brain’s motivation fuel) flowing and help you stay engaged.
Rest Like It’s Part of the Work—Because It Is
Being “on” all the time doesn’t make you stronger—it makes you exhausted. Good sleep is essential, but so is deep rest while awake. Try breathwork, meditation, or even a few minutes of doing absolutely nothing to give your brain a break.
Don’t Do It Alone—We’re Wired for Connection
Hard hope is easier to carry when we share it. Spending time with people who lift you up—whether they’re friends, family, or a supportive community—helps regulate stress and renew energy. Laughter, real conversations, and even just knowing someone else gets it can make all the difference.
Think Like Nature—Seasons, Not Sprints
Nature doesn’t push nonstop—it has cycles of growth, rest, and renewal. You should, too. Some seasons are for action, others for learning, reflecting, or simply enjoying life. Sustainable change comes from knowing when to push and when to pause.
Hard hope isn’t about pushing until you break—it’s about learning how to sustain the energy to keep going. Take care of yourself so you can take care of what matters.
The future isn’t shaped by those who retreat in fear but by those who train their brains to stay engaged, curious, and take action.
The foundation of that hope starts with something simple: one conversation, one act of trust, one step toward connection at a time.
Read the full article here and follow Lisa on LinkedIn, and the Apolitical Foundation here.
Hopey, Changey Stuff
Must-read substack from Rewire in which Roma student and human rights activist Ani Kovacheva talks about how the 1988 “Chile, Happiness is Coming” campaign inspired her to change her approach to fighting discrimination against the Roma in Bulgaria.
Building a new vision for Ukraine: sign up for this April 6 Unhack Democracy event where activists, architects and technologists will talk about rethinking and strengthening democracyic institutions.
Opening new paths: “The narratives we collectively create spread hope and transform despair into hope”. Short, readable and engaging new report from the Global Narrative Hive shares insights from experiments for countering far-right narratives. Kudos to them for publishing in multiple languages too.
Brain Science Corner
Judson Brewer on curiosity
Following on from Lisa’s article, let’s reflect on the role of curiosity in quelling fear in our politics. One of my favourite neuroscientists, Judson Brewer, uses curiosity as an antidote to fear, anxiety and addiction. His work is based on the insight that most of our behavior is driven by reward-based learning. His technique involves being more mindful of our [unwanted] habits and being curious about them as a means to control them. We do this to train ourselves to see that the activity that gives us a quick dopamine hit (a cigarette, worrying, an unhealthy snack or a bit of political schadenfreude) is not actually that rewarding, and crucially, offer an alternative habit: a “bigger, better offer”.
That’s why in using the hope-based shifts, we name the fear, the thing we shift “from” and then articulate an alternative thing we want to shift “to”. Brewer says curiosity beats anxiety because it feels better, but also because it moves us in the opposite direction, from closed to open.
I think we in activism need to think more about how making people more curious about others (i.e. “out-groups”) is a first step to moving away from fear and hate, towards compassion and genuine solidarity. A process described as the “Continuum of Support” in the Heartwired guide by Amy Simon and Robert Perez (on page 9).
At the end of this podcast interview, he also talks about kindness as another alternative to anxiety. So curiosity about others, and kindness: a pretty close match to the intrinsic values of universalism and benevolence?
How might we start doing in our storytelling to start strategically generating more curiosity in the world? Comments below please!
Quote of the week
“A decade from now, I imagine that when we look back, we will see this moment not as one that upended our march forward but one that may only have slowed us down a bit, before we can gather ourselves and press forward once again.”
Check out this post from Ernest Waititu (thanks to hope-based expert Dante Licona for sharing).
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