Whatever enlarges hope will also exalt courage

“Whatever enlarges hope will also exalt courage.” – Samuel Johnson

It’s a fine line-promoting hope.

On one hand, there’s caution. You want to be aware of risk. Assess it accurately. Anticipate the obstacles and gird yourself to face them.

But, sometimes, it sets you back. It causes stress and worry. It fosters indecision. Your assessment of risk pushes you backward. It causes you to pause.

So, we promote hope. We remember the challenges we encountered before. We remember the talent assembled on our team and the creativity we have deployed. We count the obstacles that seemed to big to defeat and remember how they were overcome.

We say words of encouragement to each other and take a step forward.

“Let’s go,” we say.

“We’ve been in deeper weeds” we remind.

“We hang together, we got this,” we exhort.

Hope is better. A fine line, indeed, but better. It inspires us to courage.