The Case for Delusional Optimism: Sometimes You Have to Believe Before You Have the Evidence

Sometimes you have to believe in the possibility of something long before your circumstances can support the belief.

I know that sounds a little unreasonable, and maybe even delusional. But I've come to appreciate the value of believing in something before there is any visible evidence to suggest it will happen. This isn’t because I have everything figured out, nor because I know exactly how things will unfold, but because I don't believe my current circumstances should have the final say in what I consider possible for my future.

Some people call it faith. Others call it delusional optimism. I've learned that sometimes the two look remarkably similar.

The Things I Wrote Down Before I Had Any Reason to Believe

I’ll share one example of many that has played out throughout my life. Back in 2007, I wrote down a list of things I wanted for my future. I wasn't particularly strategic about it, and at the time I didn't have a detailed plan, a timeline, or a clear understanding of what it would take to make any of those things happen.

I simply wrote them down.

At the time, some of those declarations seemed almost impossible. I was much younger, still figuring out what my life would look like, and nowhere near having the circumstances to support the future I was imagining.

But I believed.

I carried those declarations in my wallet for years. They were a quiet reminder of the things I hoped for, even when my everyday reality looked nothing like the future I had written down.

Then, nearly two decades later, I came across that old wallet. I found the declarations I had written in 2007, and as I read through them, I realized something that stopped me in my tracks.

All five of those things had come to pass.

Five things I had written down when I couldn't have explained how they would happen had somehow become part of my reality.

I sat with that realization for a while.

It wasn't that I had spent every day thinking about those declarations or that I had somehow orchestrated every detail along the way. Life happened. Plans changed. There were detours, unexpected circumstances, difficult seasons, and plenty of moments when I had no idea what the next chapter would look like.

But somewhere along the way, the things I once imagined as possibilities became things I actually lived.

And I couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if I had decided back then that those things were too far-fetched to even write down.

The Problem With Only Believing What You Can Already See

We are often encouraged to be realistic.

Have a plan. Look at the numbers. Consider the circumstances. Be practical. Don't get ahead of yourself.

And there is certainly value in being grounded. I'm not suggesting that we abandon logic, ignore our responsibilities, or confuse wishful thinking with a strategy. But I do think there is a danger in allowing our present circumstances to determine the full extent of what we believe is possible.

When you only believe in what you can already see, you leave very little room for anything new.

Think about how many things in your life might never have happened if you had waited until you had all the evidence before believing they were possible.

The career you pursued before you knew whether you would succeed.

The business you started before you had customers.

The move you considered before you knew how everything would work out.

The relationship you hoped for before you knew who would eventually become your partner.

The version of yourself you imagined before you had any idea how much you would have to grow to become that person.

So much of life requires us to move toward something we cannot fully see yet, and sometimes the belief has to come before the evidence.

I think that's where delusional optimism gets interesting. It isn't necessarily about being convinced that everything will work out exactly as you imagine. It's about refusing to let what you cannot currently see become a reason to dismiss what might still be possible.

Sometimes Faith Looks a Little Like Delusion

There is a difference between believing that something is possible and believing that you can control every outcome. I don't believe we get to dictate exactly how life unfolds. I've lived long enough to know that even the best-laid plans can take unexpected turns.

But I do believe there is something powerful about having the audacity to believe that God can bring something into your life that your present circumstances cannot yet explain.

For me, that is where faith enters the conversation.

Faith isn't necessarily about having the answers. It is being willing to hold on to a possibility without knowing what the path toward it will look like, or even knowing whether it will work out, but choosing to trust anyway. There are things you can pray about, hope for, work toward, and carry quietly in your heart long before anything around you suggests they are close to becoming reality.

And perhaps that is part of the relationship between faith and optimism. You don't necessarily need to understand the entire process to believe that something beyond your current circumstances is possible.

You still have to show up. You still have to make decisions. You still have to do the work that is yours to do, but you don't have to know every step before you allow yourself to believe in the destination.

Sometimes what other people call delusion is simply faith that hasn't caught up with visible evidence yet.

Don't Confuse a Slow Timeline With an Impossible Future

One of the things I've learned is that the timing of our lives doesn't always cooperate with the timelines we create for ourselves.

We imagine where we will be by a certain age. We attach expectations to certain milestones. We assume that if something hasn't happened by a particular point, perhaps we missed our opportunity. But life doesn't always unfold according to our preferred schedule.

Sometimes things take longer than we anticipated. Sometimes an opportunity arrives in a form we didn't recognize. Sometimes the path changes so significantly that the original plan no longer makes sense. And sometimes we have to sit in the uncomfortable space between what we believe is possible and what our current reality looks like.

That space can be difficult.

It is especially difficult when you're surrounded by people who seem to be moving ahead, achieving milestones, and checking off the things you thought you would have accomplished by now.

But someone else's timeline is not evidence that yours is wrong.

A delay doesn't automatically mean denial. A detour doesn't mean you've lost your way. And an unfinished chapter doesn't mean the story isn't going somewhere meaningful.

I think we have to become comfortable with the idea that our circumstances can change without our belief having to disappear every time they do.

Keep the Audacity to Believe

When I found that old wallet, I was reminded of a younger version of myself who was willing to imagine a future she couldn't yet explain.

I didn't have all the answers in 2007. I couldn't have predicted the experiences, opportunities, relationships, or decisions that would shape the years that followed.

But I had allowed myself to believe in something beyond what I could see.

I wonder how many of us have stopped doing that.

Somewhere between becoming adults, managing responsibilities, paying bills, raising families, building careers, and navigating the realities of everyday life, we become a little more cautious about what we allow ourselves to imagine. We become practical. We lower our expectations. We sometimes convince ourselves that wanting something beyond what we currently have is unrealistic.

But I don't want to lose the ability to imagine a future that surprises me.

I don't want my current circumstances to become the boundaries of my ambition. I don't want the absence of evidence to become evidence that something is impossible. And I don't want to become so preoccupied with figuring out how everything will happen that I forget to leave room for what I cannot yet anticipate.

There is still so much I don't know about how my own story will unfold. There are things I'm working toward, things I'm praying about, and possibilities I haven't yet seen materialize.

But I think that's okay.

I can believe and still be figuring things out. I can have faith and still make practical decisions. I can be optimistic without pretending that life is always easy.

Maybe that's the point.

You don't have to see the entire path to believe there is somewhere worth going.

So write the things down. Allow yourself to imagine something bigger. Make the plans, take the steps, do the work, and give yourself permission to believe in possibilities that your present circumstances haven't caught up with yet.

Some people might call it delusional.

I think I'll keep a little of that.

Let God cook.