Some days, you feel hopeless.

You know the feeling. The feeling when your hands and feet feel like lead. The feeling when you can’t move, can’t breathe.

You feel powerless and vulnerable.

We’ve all been there. That hopelessness. And sometimes it just sticks around and beats you up, and you wonder why you ever hoped in the first place.

Let me be blunt. You deserve to hope precisely because you feel hopeless.

First, we feel hopeless about things we care about.

We feel hopeless about big things. Hopeless when we get rejected. Hopeless when we screw up. Hopeless when we fall back into unwanted habits. Hopeless when loved ones suffer. Hopeless about politics, hopeless about war, hopeless about disease.

Some people treat hopelessness by not caring anymore.

Apathy is one way to prevent hopelessness, because if you don’t care, you can’t be hopeless.

However, I think that it’s precisely because you care that you should have hope.

Hopelessness is, ironically enough, a side effect of us caring about something very deeply.

We care so damn much that we can hope for change, because caring is the first step to change. It is because we are fighting that we should hope, even though all we feel is despair.

You care. And that itself is cause for hope, because apathy never fixed anything.

Second, hopelessness cannot happen without failure. Hopelessness comes after a failed attempt to fix some situation, or a botched try to accomplish some goal.

You should be hopeful though, even after failure. Why is that?

Because you have tried.

Few people actually try.

I don’t care how badly you failed. I don’t care how embarrassed you are. You tried, and you are a monument to bravery – far more than those who judge you without trying at all. By trying, you provide hope to others, and that is why you should hope as well.

You tried. And that itself is cause for hope, because inactivity never fixed anything.

Third, hopelessness strikes in a predictable pattern. It strikes because you know something is wrong.

You feel a powerful, paralyzing sense of hopelessness because your sense of right and wrong has been violated. You know that something must be changed. Maybe you don’t know what it is, but you know – oh, you know with a conviction that could shake the earth itself.

And conviction is essential to hope.

Here’s why you should hope, even though you feel hopeless: because you have a powerful conviction, and because you are working towards righting a wrong.

You have conviction. And that itself is cause for hope, because as cheesy as it sounds, you will eventually prevail.

Hopelessness is simply an indicator that you have what it takes to make a change.

And that right there should give you hope.

If you or someone you know needs help, call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Outside of the U.S., please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention for a database of resources.