Week 3: Chapter 2 — Why Endings Are Difficult

1.Cloud identifies several psychological and emotional reasons why endings are so hard for people. Which of the reasons he describes resonated most with your own experience? Why?

2.Cloud talks about the role of hope — specifically, misplaced hope — in keeping people stuck in situations that need to end. What is the difference between genuine hope that something can change and what Cloud calls a 'wish'? How do you tell the difference in your own thinking?

3.Cloud notes that many people avoid endings because they fear the grief and pain that will follow. But he argues that the pain of an ending is usually less than the ongoing pain of not ending. Have you ever found that to be true after the fact? What does that experience teach you about how we estimate future pain?