You can stop hoping for one outcome without becoming someone who has stopped hoping.

Letting go of one particular hope can feel like a change in character, as though giving up here means you have become a person who expects nothing. But hope is not a single quantity that runs out. Withdrawing it from something that will not happen is what frees it to attach somewhere it can actually live.

Let a release be specific rather than general. Name exactly what you are stopping hoping for, and say it plainly, even just to yourself. Then give the freed attention somewhere small and real to go, and be patient, because it takes a while to arrive.