Seeking Sageship: Beyond Leadership

Seeking Sageship: Beyond Leadership

The War Against Hopelessness

Why So Many Are Losing

Dr. Cody Dakota Wooten's avatar
Dr. Cody Dakota Wooten
Feb 17, 2026
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The War Against Hopelessness

Why So Many Are Losing

Have you ever just had that weight...

Crushing...

Impacting you all the way to your heart and soul?

It changes how the world appears that day...

Even on what appears to be a perfect day?

That deep and intense feeling...

Of hopelessness?

It is one of those things that can occur at seemingly any moment...

Without any explanation.

You could be at the absolute height of your career...

In the best position possible...

With nothing that can stop you...

And it will still come around and strike you...

Causing you to feel like collapsing on the ground...

Asking whether any of it is really worth it all?

Even King Solomon, considered the wisest and with riches beyond riches...

Everything he could possibly want within his grasp...

Who was recognized for his greatness by other rulers in his day...

Famously said...

“I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and what vanity it all is, what chasing of the wind!” Ecclesiastes 1:14 JB

In this context, the words “vanity” and “meaningless” are interchangeable based on the original word “הֶבֶל” pronounced “hevel”.

To have everything...

And call it all meaningless...

Is one of the most powerful and potent examples of hopelessness in written history.

This is also what most people fail to understand in their lives...

They believe that hopelessness is something that can be defeated...

A battle where we can conquer it...

And exist in this perpetual triumph.

It is that belief which causes so many people to crash when the truth becomes inescapable...

There is not a battle against hopelessness...

There is a war.

But the enemy of hopelessness...

Never disappears.

True...

You may be able to win a battle against hopelessness...

And you may not see it for a while...

But that is simply because it is waiting...

Like a lion that is preparing for the kill.

If you are arrogant enough to believe that you have defeated hopelessness forever...

That is when it will strike...

Usually the hardest...

In a way that hurts the absolute worst.

When the lion pounces...

It seeks to kill...

And for many people...

It succeeds.

The lion of hopelessness has succeeded in killing much...

Careers...

Dreams...

Families...

Even in the taking of life.

The war against hopelessness has been a long and bitter war that humanity has faced for longer than recorded history can tell us.

Yet...

What most people fail to understand...

Is that even though the war against hopelessness does not end...

That does not mean that we cannot continue to fight...

And win...

Battle after battle.

When we understand that hopelessness always comes...

We can also understand that hopelessness can also always go...

Can always be overcome...

Can always be beaten.

We can become lion hunters in our lives and fight off the hopelessness...

We can learn to coexist with the lion...

And if we are crafty enough...

We may even be able to train the lion so that it works with us instead of against us.

I know from experience...

The weight and crushing feeling of hopelessness...

That is what I have been feeling throughout today.

It is something that I have felt many times throughout my life...

And at points...

Was nearly the end of me.

And yet...

Here I still stand today.

Another lion faced...

Another lion is overcome.

We are far more powerful than we realize as humans.

We can overcome every lion of hopelessness that approaches us.

The war may not end...

But we can continue to overcome each lion that faces us.

Learn to become a lion hunter...

And take back hope.


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If we are to fight off the lion of hopelessness…

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I have 5 Tactics that the lion of hopelessness utilizes…

So that you can learn where it will try to strike you from…

Giving you the advantage against it.

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