Hopeful Skepticism

As I sit here waiting for my flight to take off for a conference, I’m filled with gratitude. I’m grateful for the scholarship that I was awarded which affords me the opportunity to attend this conference.

But I’m also grateful for the caring, hard working people who make every day of the school year possible. When times are tough, which they most often are this time of year, it’s easy to look around and see only challenges. It’s easy to feel anything but cynical. It’s easy to look around and see all of the problems, place blame, and be overcome by a sense of impending doom. It’s been there. We’ve all been there.

It feels terrible. And I think we deserve better. Especially those of us working in schools.

I’m reminded of a concept called hopeful skepticism. Where we choose to believe that perhaps it’s going to work out. Perhaps it will be even better than we could have imagined. So, we are hopeful for this to be true, and we wait to decide if it is not true when presented with information or facts that tells us as much. And we do everything in our power to make it as good as it can be.

We don’t put our heads in the sand. We don’t force ourselves to wear rose-colored glasses. We aren’t pushing toxic positivity. Rather we open ourselves up to the possibility that it could be great, and we wait and see how great it can be.

Often, we become what we think about. We become what we do. “We become our conversations” as my friend, Kelly Croy says So, if we are not careful, in our cynicism, we may create the very world which we fear. We may create the very worst possible reality for ourselves and others.

What would happen if instead we simply did our best. We showed up in the best ways we knew how. We opened our minds and hearts. We put in the work and then waited to see.

It’s human nature to be skeptical.

So, be skeptical. But hold just a little space in your heart for hope too, believing in what you are doing to make your little corner of the world a better place.

I talk a lot about my life-long battle with perfectionism in my book, Legacy of Learning. There are no perfect people or organizations. But the best organizations are focused on learning, growing, and centering humanity.

That makes me feel hopeful.

Skepticism is not a bad word or a bad concept. It’s an approach that invites inquisitive inquiry, deep curiosity, and meaningful dialogue. It’s an approach that can foster hope.

And I think we can all use a little more of that right now.