Salaam - Hope: Circumstance or Mindset?

As-salamu alaykum. Have you seen older people who still hold on to hope like children? And on the flip side, young people who act like they’ve already given up? I want to share some thoughts on how your mindset shapes your hope and the overall quality of your life. Think of people who move through life without much hope, like they don’t believe they can change their situation. Maybe some of these traits fit them: 1. Fear of change and refusal to accept that change is a constant. 2. Disliking learning and denying that learning matters. 3. Waiting for some external miracle to fix everything. Now consider older people who stay hopeful and content. Perhaps they follow the same ideas but flipped around: 1. They accept change and try to use it to their advantage. 2. They welcome learning, knowing that stopping learning is like stopping growth. 3. They take responsibility for their actions and work to solve their problems. Some people orient life around comfort and consumption, treating change and learning as burdens. As a result, they stick with their current, maybe difficult, conditions instead of using free time to improve. They choose short-term comfort over growth and stay stuck. Ask yourself: is your mindset keeping you stuck in the past, with little improvement over the years? Are you upgrading your phone, car, or gadgets while neglecting to develop as a human being? Is refusing to change and learn your idea of a good life? Or can we learn from hopeful elders - their curiosity, willingness to learn, and openness to new perspectives - and use that mindset to improve daily life? Wouldn’t that help you move forward on your path? I know it’s hard to change: shifting how you think, accepting change, and learning new things isn’t easy. But it’s up to you whether you have the mindset of an old person in your twenties or the lively, curious spirit of someone in their sixties. Which do you choose?