Why We Must Keep Going

There is no perfect moment.

Consider that if David Ben Gurion postponed declaring the State of Israel until the Arab nations accepted it, he would never have declared it. If the early Zionist pioneers postponed draining the swamps until there was peace, they never would have done it. If Waze and Mobileye postponed their exits until there was another tech beacon in the Middle East, they would never have sold them.

“We are mistaken when we compare war with normal life,” CS Lewis said in a speech he delivered to Oxford University students in 1939, with World War II just underway. “Life has never been normal.” There have always been plausible reasons to avoid work. History itself is the story of war, disease and poverty: seemingly good excuses to forget human flourishing and merely try to survive.

“But humanity long ago chose to neglect those plausible reasons,” he added. Because if we wait the perfect time, we’ll never get started. The Zionists have always known this. Part of growing up is internalizing just that: there is no perfect moment. I can’t tell you how many times I never got a chance to ask out a girl because I was too busy waiting for the perfect moment. Or how many times I didn’t go to the gym because I wasn’t feeling up for it.

But bowing to the whims and fancies of our mood swings is child play. Sometimes you just need to grow up: go on the date even if you’re in a bad mood; present at work even if you’re hungover; get the gym feeling weak. It’s okay to be imperfect because once you stop trying to be perfect, you can be good. You can maintain discipline and consistency, the real substance of success according to Aristotle. Because if we’re always waiting around for the ideal conditions to succeed, we might never get started. It’s that simple. That is why we must keep going.

“The war creates no absolutely new situation: it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice,” Lewis said. I hate to get morbid, but here’s the truth: we’re all going to die someday. Death and taxes, the two certainties in life. So why do anything at all? Why invest in relationships, love, joy, family, friends, work? Well, because, this is life. War doesn’t change anything.

I know it’s hard. I can still barely focus. With Israeli soldiers risking their lives to defend Am Yisrael, nothing else seems important. It’s hard to compartmentalize. It’s challenging to continue filling spreadsheets and writing emails in the presence of existential threats and national sacrifice. I feel guilty.

But if our soldiers fighting with tanks and rifles aren’t fighting for our nation’s continued pursuit of beauty, truth, love and light, then what are they doing? “Our goal is to make sure Israeli civilians get to live their lives,” one soldier wrote recently on Facebook in response to someone who guiltily asked about vacation destinations. “We’re not sacrificing ourselves for the people to be in pain. Please if you need a vacation, go on one!”

So whatever your shtick: keep at it. It’s time to keep building companies, recording podcasts, composing music, writing poetry, playing squash, running races, learning Torah, reading science fiction, working in marketing, medicine, sales — whatever it is, keep going. Don’t stop.