You’re not alone in feeling like the world has become unhinged. It has. And it’s probably going to get worse.

Todd Hirsch

26-MAY-2026

Optimism. It’s a scarce commodity these days. All around us, the news headlines are sending our anxiety into overdrive. War. Inflation. Political division. Economics. Crumbling democracy. Climate change. Micro-plastics! TICKS!!

In such a chaotic world, is it even possible to have a hopeful disposition? Can we reasonably expect to believe that things will somehow work out?

Why we struggle with optimism is that we misunderstand it. 

Optimism is not a right. It’s not free. It doesn’t come without effort.

Without putting in the work, optimism is nothing more than wishful thinking. It’s the Disney-fied version of optimism, a throw-back to Jiminy Cricket singing “When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true.”

It’s a hollow promise. Wishing and hoping and pie-in-the-sky is worthless.

Optimism – the true, deep, solid kind of optimism – takes effort. You have to earn it, and wishing on a star isn’t the work.

How, then, do you earn the right to be optimistic? To truly feel that regardless of what happens next, you will survive and be OK?

First of all, you need to know your story. Know who you are as a person, a business, a non-profit, a city, a neighbourhood… anything. If you can’t define who you are, you will have no direction forward. And with no direction forward, you can’t just hope for the best when trouble comes your way.

Knowing your story is not as straightforward as it might sound. It requires work. Serious work. Deep, heavy-lifting work to get to the bottom of your identity. Most of us get stuck with simple adjectives that describe the roles we play (eg., “I’m a father” or “We’re a law firm.”) That’s not your story. Understanding your purpose for existing is a much deeper, philosophical question that can take years to answer with clarity. But that’s the work.

Secondly, you need to maintain proper perspective. Here is where we can borrow from the stoic philosophers like Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus. The stoics teach us: Don’t give your energy to the things that you can’t control; focus only on your actions and reactions that you can control.

In today’s world, there’s no end to the troubling events over which we have no control. The violence in the Middle East, the spike in energy prices, tariffs and disruptions to trade, extreme weather events, and political mayhem are all around us. We can’t ignore these things (and there are times and places where our action is required). But don’t give them your energy. Don’t let your day be ruined when you listen to what so-and-so said today. That takes effort and practice, but you have the agency to disallow the noise from destroying you.

Thirdly, we earn optimism by building human connection. This is perhaps the most important work of all. Without the help and support of others, none of us can succeed.

A well-respected business leader once said to me, “Build bridges… before you need them!” We can’t wait until crisis hits or trouble is bearing down on us to ask others for help. Building the relationship – the bridge – needs to take place in the good times, before the storm hits.

You’re not alone in feeling like the world has become unhinged. It has. And it’s probably going to get worse.

Yet we can be optimistic about what comes next. That doesn’t mean all the nonsense goes away. It simply means that the nonsense won’t defeat you.

Know your story and purpose. Focus on what you can control. Foster strong human connections.

If you do the work, you’ll have earned the right to be optimistic.