This topic was suggested to me by a Quick Hits regular and I thought, “Are they different?” The thesaurus says they are synonyms. Hmmm – might not make for a very interesting conversation.

 

But I’m game for just about anything so… We gave it a try. Turns out, it was a really good, mind twisty conversation.

 

Rabbi Yonason Goldson compared optimism and hope to John Lennon’s “Imagine” and Paul McCartney’s “Let It Be,” arguing that one was more grounded in reality than the other.

 

Tim Hawkes, the managing director of Unlimited Potential, offered an engineering metaphor. “I think optimism is a belief without evidence. It’s a non-vectored point, whereas hope is vectored. It has a journey. ‘I hope I will be this.’”

 

Gary Fredericks, CEO of On Point Partners, said that optimism always stays with you. “In my business life, people ask me all the time: What are your goals? My goals are always 100%. And that’s optimism. I don’t think I’m ever going to get there, but I’m not going to quit until I get to 100%”

 

Are hope and optimism different things to you?

Connect with the panelists:

Tim Hawkes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhawkes/

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonason-goldson/

Gary Fredericks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garyfredericks/

 

Dr Robyn Odegaard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robynodegaard/

Want a summary of the Quick Hits I post every week, plus the links to the LinkedIn pages of each of the panelist to show up in your in-box every week? Just let me know where to send it: https://drrobynodegaard.com/quick-hits-notifications/

 

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on pertinent subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.DrRobynOdegaard.com

 

#Hope #Optimism #Goals