Don’t despair

The Stockdale Paradox was named by author Jim Collins, who interviewed the American pilot Jim Stockdale, who was shot down over North Vietnam in 1965 and held prisoner for seven and a half years.

He survived when many others died, which he put down to neither harbouring false hope, nor succumbing to despair.

Some lost all hope and died of a broken spirit, while others tried to keep their hopes alive by telling themselves that their ordeal would end soon. These died of despair when it didn’t.

Stockdale never lost faith that the ordeal would eventually end, and knew it would be the defining event of his life.

But he also forced himself to confront and accept the reality of the most brutal facts of his situation without allowing himself the anaesthetic of false hope.

Brutal facts may be brutal and real, but how we respond to them is up to us.

When brutal facts are named, defined and delineated, space opens up around their borders, allowing the possibility of a response.