To build and maintain hope, we need three things: a sense of control, a
belief in the value of something, and a community.^32 “Control” means we feel
as though we’re in control of our own life, that we can affect our fate.
“Values” means we find something important enough to work toward,
something better, that’s worth striving for. And “community” means we are
part of a group that values the same things we do and is working toward
achieving those things. Without a community, we feel isolated, and our values
cease to mean anything. Without values, nothing appears worth pursuing. And
without control, we feel powerless to pursue anything. Lose any of the three,
and you lose the other two. Lose any of the three, and you lose hope.
For us to understand why we’re suffering through such a crisis of hope
today, we need to understand the mechanics of hope, how it is generated and
maintained. The next three chapters will look at how we develop these three
areas of our lives: our sense of control (chapter 2), our values (chapter 3), and
our communities (chapter 4).
We will then return to the original question: what is happening in our
world that is causing us to feel worse despite everything consistently getting
better?
And the answer might surprise you.