What keeps you going?

Because life’s exciting! If I died now, I’d never find out what happens in the book I’m reading.

In my world quitting is not an option, or I’ve always been too stupid to realize it is.

Once many years ago when I was a programmer my team leader gave me a program to fix. It took me months to fix it. Never mind that my first suggestion of a fix was pooh poohed by my team leader as too simple and had already been tried, but I was right and I got it fixed. In my review, I got a high rating because I didn’t give up. Several senior programmers with years more experience had given up. I never knew it was an option, you ask me to fix it I’ll fix it.
When I was going from operations to programming it took me 17 interviews before I finally got hired. Everyone else around me had quit trying, I pushed ahead and refused to let ‘no’ get me down.

That is life, you don’t give up. You don’t worry about what other people have or do, you do what you do and keep on doing it. Sometimes you have to change direction, rethink where you want to go.

I’ve had it easy, I’ve had it hard. I used to have 3 houses and a good income. I got sick, couldn’t work and lost it all.
You fall down, you pick yourself up and keep going.
Even a baby learning to walk knows that.

You live, you learn, you change, you grow.
Fuck quitting… that’s just not an option in my world.

Primarily my daughter. Secondarily my wife. I’m reluctant to do anything that would leave them with lingering hurt.

As others have said, my family keeps me going, particularly in the short term. I always look forward to seeing my son when I come home from work.

In the long term there’s usually some event that I’m planning many months down the line that keeps me interested. For example, we’re planning to take a cruise through the Panama Canal a year from now.

Yep. Life is about survival and using any extra energy to bring about the kingdom of God. I know He is taking care of me even when there doesn’t seem to be much to live for, and even when I feel like nothing I know I am something to Him. I wouldn’t mind dying of natural causes to get to the next life, but I wouldn’t hasten it.

Yup.

Plus, really, who cares if it’s all going to be gone anyway? I get really tired of people intent on being miserable because there’s no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. So what? Life is still enjoyable without it. Don’t you have fun carousing with your pals, dusting off your bicycle when Spring makes its triumphant return, reading good books, laughing at bad jokes, bickering about politics at the bar, having a good roll in the hay with a boy (or girl) you like? It’s sort of like a hilarious movie with no plot: not really going anywhere, but still pretty dang fun to sit through.

Can you imagine someone who must force themselves to do all those things, yet derives no joy from any of them?

My desire to wreck vengeance :wink:

Romanticism. I like to think that I’d get better/life of hubby and I will get better/human kind as a whole will get better within our lifetime. It’s the optimism of an eternal pessimist.

belief in an afterlife also takes away some of the incentive to check out, if you think your mind will still survive.

Louis CK said something pretty well thought out:

“have a drink of water, get some sleep, wake up in the morning and try again like everyone else does”

Just wake up the next day, try again, and try to do better. That is what helps me.

I admire happy go lucky people and people who are biologically prone to being happy and resilient. At this point I do pretty good, but I have dark times now and again.

I think of Harriet Tubman. I picture her mucking around on the Eastern Shore with nothing but a shotgun, in total pitch-blackness. A bounty on her head. People depending on her to always be sure-footed, hanging onto her for dear life. Narcolepsy be damned.

I suffer in this life of mine. Sometimes the pain is so great that I think about suicide with a certain self-righteousness. But then I think of Harriet, and I instantly feel ashamed of myself.

Suicide the way I would prefer to do it is complicated and takes a fair bit of effort. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as just being done with it all and fading away.

As far as those left behind, at very least, there’s a dead body for someone to find and deal with. And as far as actually doing it, it has to be pretty foolproof. I’m not going to be one of those people who attempts suicide all the damn time.

And that’s pretty much it.

Ok did anybody think of this thread, started not 1 month ago, last updated 17 days before this thread started, with the exact same title?

whether you believe in God or are certain there is nothing–equally weighted, awareness of reality is an unfathomably remarkable thing.

the complexity of the human condition itself is so astonishing that i feel obligated to prolong it for its natural duration.

and when i really feel utterly keelhauled by life–i just watch some old simpsonsepisodes.

The joy of the hunt, thrill of the kill.

Paradox. Contradictions can’t physically exist, so apparent contradictions are an irresistible mystery to me.

Spirit (metaphorical). I have found that even at my most beaten down, there has always existed some sliver or spark of spirit. Even the barest glimmer of hope, when paired with imagination, inevitably expands into joy.

Love. Love transforms all things, especially those things we fear the most.

Dr Who via Craig Ferguson: “It’s all about the triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism.”

Pain. We’re all interconnected and I’ve never understood how people need something asides from the ability to make this world a better place.

I used to be an Orthodox Jew, so I get where JDthDJ is coming from, but if the only justification for your life is the a priori system given by your god or gods, I think you’re missing out on people.

Inertia.

Yep. I had a conversation with my sister once who doesn’t quite understand my atheism.

She asked me “Don’t you want to go to heaven?” I told her 'No, I’m already living in ‘heaven’. If I could live for an eternity, it would be right here on this Earth. Even if it meant I still had to work 40hrs a week, pay bills and deal all the crappiness in the world. I want to live right here on this Earth. Not floating around on some cloud thinking about how great God is…forever!"

To me, the crappy things in life are just a frame of reference. With out them you wouldn’t be able to appreciate the good things in life.

And this. Always this.

Cueball: There is no god. Our existence is without purpose.
Whitehat: Oh, definitely. We are adrift in an uncaring void indifferent to all our mortal toil.
Cueball: Exactly! In the end, nothing we do matters.
Whitehat: Totally.
Cueball: We just… why are you climbing that tree?
Whitehat: Because the future is an adventure! Come on!
Cueball: But–
Whitehat: Hey! I found squirrels!

xkcd:nihilism