AMOR FATI: – A Latin phrase for ‘love of fate’. Fate is an event that is out of a person’s control. Fate makes you vulnerable, it occupies so much headspace that you are compelled to ‘hope’. Say fate can also make you ‘optimistic’, but how are being hopeful and optimistic different yet they mean the same thing. Being in a positive state of mind still, we use it interchangeably. When we say to be optimistic it entirely means having positive expectations about an event without doing any work for it. A similar outlook works when being hopeful, it is a simple human trait to hope for the odds to be on their side. Every other thing to be in their favour but why?

Hope is an entirely self-controlled emotion, when we can control what we hope then why is it that we mix it with being ‘optimistic’ why don’t we hope for what already is- because hope is ultimately empty. Anything our brain can conceptualize is fundamentally flawed and limited because of our own unconditional ‘hopes’. Don’t hope for more happiness, don’t hope for fewer sufferings, don’t hope to be an improved person.

Don’t let hope eliminate your flaws. Hope for this- suffering which comes with freedom, ignorance which comes with wisdom, respect which comes with responsibilities, and then act despite it because when you see the grass on the other side it is not always greener. The act that you hope for can only be accomplished by your vision. To act without hope, to ‘not hope’ to be better but ‘be’ better, and with this, you fill the emptiness that hope brings with itself.

But talking about optimism, individuals expect desired outcomes to happen in future and undesired outcomes to not happen but without doing a thing. When you are optimistic, you certainly believe what you hope for will eventually happen. Being optimistic is being naïve, always be expecting everything to be perfect to not understanding the gravity of the situation in this case the act of hope has stakes high

When you hope you have the willpower to set goals, the follow-through- the flexibility to adapt to the situation. But when you are optimistic you try to see that life is still good even when in trouble. That you will eventually figure a way out but the time getting invested in figuring out could have been utilised by actually hoping and implementing it.

Although hope and optimism are two separate emotions, one is not beneficial without the other. Someone who is optimistic but without hope could think everything could turn out great but have no plans to make it happen. It is important to have a subtle combination of hope and optimism to support your own Amor Fati.

Lavanya