7 Reasons to Keep Going
Whatever goal you are pursuing — and whatever challenges you are facing on your way toward that end — there are always reasons to keep on going.
This article aims to inspire perseverance in relation to an important personal goal (for instance, a goal regarding your career, health, or social relationships). It does not, however, aim to alleviate mental disorders (or similar situations) by offering you “reasons to keep going in life”, as I do not currently feel comfortable or authorized to write about such a topic. Proceed with this in mind.
1: It makes your life more meaningful/fulfilling
When something is truly important to you, it has personal meaning.
Whether that thing is music, family, nature, or school, it is absolutely worth your most precious time and energy. Pursuing tasks and goals that really matter makes for a much more meaningful and fulfilling life — and a more focused one too. Sometimes it is also what causes you the most stress and struggle in life, but that may be to the credit of just how important it is for you to do it right.
Without this pursuit, your life will undoubtedly lose much of its spark.
2: You will only reach your goal if you persevere
As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said, “a goal without a plan is just a wish.”
In other words, unless you keep persevering despite the inevitable setbacks that come, you will never realize your desired state of life — it will merely be an unfulfilled wish. In the end, you have the power to make (parts of) your dream a reality. You cannot become a painter unless you paint, and you will never become a good friend if you turn to badmouthing and backstabbing.
Your goal is waiting, and if you choose to go and get it, you may reach it yet.
3: Your efforts will make a difference
Regardless of how successful you are in terms of reaching your ideal state, your perseverance will have made an important difference anyway.
Always trying, learning, and doing are infinitely more fruitful than never trying, learning, or doing at all. Effort always rewards, even if it does so in unexpected ways. You might not receive the affections of your crush, and you might only reach second place in a competition, but throughout your diligent work you will have gained much more precious things: focus, fulfillment, and important lessons for your future endeavors.
You might even succeed altogether, but only if you put in the effort.
4: The long term matters more than the short term
Any worthy pursuit seeks a future that is improved in some way.
By and large, this involves prioritizing future comforts over present comforts. The challenges you meet on your way toward such a future require you to choose what is truly best for then over what merely feels good for now. It means choosing future you over current you — and benefitting the current you all the more for that choice.
Thus, the short term becomes a temporary sacrifice to a better future.
5: You have already started, anyway
Once you start something good that works, there is no reason to stop.
By this point, you have already overcome your biggest hurdle in the process, which is: taking the first step. From then on, the road ahead can only become shorter with each right step that you take forward. You might as well continue on if that road paves way for a better life.
Remember, do not swim halfway out into the ocean only to turn back.
6: Life will not get better if you choose to give up
Giving up is easy when challenges are high.
In these situations, life’s missions seem too hard to continue. Giving up becomes the easiest choice to ease the burdens in the moment. But if you are working toward something that has positive long-term effects and gives your life a sense of direction and meaning, giving up on your path to better times will only make your life worse (or, at the very least, less eventful).
Adapt and redirect if needed, but do not give up when there is still hope.
7: Other challenges will become easier to handle
Overcoming one hurdle makes the next hurdle easier to handle.
With each one you master, big or small, you train your mind and body to handle stress, which is universal to all difficulties, regardless of content or severity. Resilience is a skill that needs constant practice: you get on when you choose to persevere time and time again. Oftentimes, going on is the biggest challenge of them all, but that is precisely why you should do it.
Mountains are only impossible to climb for those who have never done it.
As always, I encourage you to take breaks.
To “keep going” means to persevere with energy and effort, whilst also maintaining that energy and effort without depleting it. So, take a break when you need one. When the moment is ready, stand up.
And then, keep going.
