If You're Going Through Hell, Keep Going

It took me many years to begin understanding this famous Churchill quote ("If You're Going Through Hell, Keep Going.") . The more I learned about him the more I related to him since we both share many of the positive (and unfortunately negative) qualities of character.

As I aged, whenever I took upon myself a project or a lifestyle and things began feeling horrible, I'd rationalize that this means it's probably not the right project for me and would haphazardly quit with no guilty feelings.

I believe that the reason Churchill said this famous quote is due to the fact that he suffered from Bipolar Disorder (as do I), this illness causes slightly depressing situations to become extremely stressful and depressive episodes, but also makes events which are positive cause mania. This oscillation and swinging of moods and perceptions is undoubtedly the reason he wrote that quote.

What I learned was that, when things are toughest, and you're in the most depressed, stressful and hopeless part of the journey, that is exactly the REASON why you MUST keep going!

Let's say that you are going through hell and everything is horrible, what sense would it make to stop? Stopping basically guarantees that you'll stay there a lot longer than if you'd keep moving.

That's my interpretation of this quote.. When things feel horrible, that's exactly the reason why you must keep moving forward. Stopping at horrible would only mean you accept horrible as your reality.

Hope this helps,

Robby