Hope Plus Sweat
Sometimes there can be conflict between the idealists and the realists: those who dream about what the world could be, versus those who try to see the world for how it is.
The idealists see problems or opportunities, and they imagine what a better world could look like. "Look at this vision of what the future could be," they say. "We should create this."
The realists see how the world operates right now. "Here's what I discovered about how reality works," they might say. "Here's how things are."
The realists might point to the idealists and call them naive: "You have a vision, but no hope of making it come true because you don't understand how things really work."
And the idealists might criticize how the realists perpetuate the status quo: "You may see how things work right now, but you have no goal for making society better, no vision for how things should look."
Both approaches have value, though—and the most impactful people fuse these two approaches into one. Maybe we call them practical dreamers, or visionary doers.
They say: "Here's how the world works right now, and here's where I want to go. Can I get to my vision from where we are right now? How might I do that? If my original vision seems impossible, how close can I get? What steps might take me there?"
A goal, plus a plan. A vision, plus the knowledge of science and business and history. Optimistic dreaming, plus realistic execution.
Hope, plus sweat.
This dynamic plays out all the time in animal advocacy. May you be someone who fuses these two together, creating more change for animals.
