Hell
I've long believed that that the most important thing in life is to keep going, to keep trying every day to reach some goal, even if the goal is only to keep going, to be a good person during that day. (Williams of West Point is a favorite book dealing with this issue.) I'm always on the lookout for succinct expressions of the same thought.
I recently noticed that Winston Churchill is quoted as saying "if you're going through hell, keep going." I think Churchill was saying pretty much the same thing as I do. It's another way of saying that stopping, giving up, accepting defeat leaves you where you were. If you find yourself in a bad situation, you won't get out of it without effort, you'll be in the bad situation indefinitely. In fact, inaction leaves us worse off because we lose the opportunity to make things better. If we stop to dwell on our problems, if we sink into despair when confronted with difficulty, we are defeated.
The most limited resource we have is our time. If we waste even a moment in inaction, in failing to do our best, that moment is lost forever. If, by contrast, we always try, we always do our best, we keep going no matter what setbacks or problems we encounter, the time spent is worthwhile. We may not overcome our difficulties, we may not solve all of our problems, but we're better off for having tried.
The greatest value of effort lies not in achieving our goals but in the effort itself. Keeping going will at least avoid sinking further into distress. We all have our own metaphors for life- I like the metaphor of soft ground. If we keep walking, the ground is easy to navigate. If we stop moving, we can sink into the ground and have difficulty in continuing. No matter how many times I say it I still think it important to declare "Keep going!"
7-31-06
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