“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” – Viktor E. Frankl

So keep going.

Even if you don’t initially find what you are looking for, it’s important to stay on the quest.

The instinct toward wanting and the internal image we have about obtaining is inherently positive. It’s this fundamental energy that compels us forward and into life that we want to say a deeper yes to.

Too often, at the first signs of negativity or unfortunate circumstances, we give up. We say it isn’t our time… or worse, the situation we found ourselves in after seeking was too painful or contradictory to our internal image and sense of rightness. So from there, we made a choice to no longer pursue our dream.

And in the pursuit of desires, it’s all too easy to slip into a mindset that if the path itself isn’t unfolding synchronistically, then perhaps it isn’t our fortune to get what we want.

But the truth is, at a deeper level, life is all about courage and determination. It’s more about getting up than it is about falling down.

It is the tests, and how we meet these tests with our evolving learning and curiosity, that are ultimately so defining. This power—to keep going despite hardships—is what gets us to where we really need to be.

And when we are truly on the right path, even the difficulties become interesting because they are some of our most instructive teachers, the ones that really bring us into contact with life.

So keep going.

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek. Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls. We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.” – Joseph Campbell