Why do you keep going?  This is the question we need to ask ourselves.  Life isn’t designed to be easy, even in its simplicity as we discussed yesterday.  When those moments get hard, we need to know the reason we keep going.  We need to know what it is that keeps us on track and why we keep moving toward the finish line when there seems to be every reason to stop.  The truth is no matter what we do, the world doesn’t stop, time doesn’t stop.  It all keeps moving, and if time moves regardless of what we do, then it seems pretty important to have enough understanding of self to figure out why we do what we do, to give ourselves purpose.  There are many times in our lives where it seems the sensible thing to stop what we are doing.  Maybe it feels like we need to give up.  But in those moments, if we have that voice inside telling us not to give up, then we must keep going. 

This is a difficult question for me to answer because I still operate with many irons in the fire.  Keeping all of that going at once is a challenge.  There are days it feels so overwhelming that the truth is I know it would be easier to simply stop.  If I had to put my why down, it’s like this: life is a beautiful gift and I spent too much time wasting what resources I had.  I move forward now, I keep going now because I have a lot to give, a lot to be grateful for, and a lot more to return.  I love my family and I know there is a better way to do things that is both fulfilling personally and allows me to share my gifts.  I keep going because I don’t want to believe that I’m here to be miserable and I would choose to find the bright side in everything anyway.  I keep going because I want to show my son what it looks like to go for our dreams and how amazing it feels when we achieve them.  I want to be able to provide for my family while doing what I love and create freedom in my life. I keep going because the healthy me is the productive me, the me that can handle the world and keep going.  The me that knows my work can make an impact.

I keep going because I want to encourage other people to keep going as well.  We all have so many things we can contribute to this world, so many things that can fix what is broken, that can make the world better for everyone, so many things that can bring joy and inspire joy.  The more we inspire each other, the closer we are to who we are meant to be.  We light each other’s candles and suddenly the world is lit anew.  We are meant to shift the world, to change the world, to make the world better simply by being ourselves, not by fitting in.  We need to encourage each other because we aren’t meant to simply repeat patterns until we die.  We aren’t meant to be fuel for a system that doesn’t care for us but benefits from us.  The why is the reason we use to break those patterns and habits.  The why is what builds something new.  We keep going because we know there is more on the other side.