For a few weeks now, I’ve felt a strange lethargy toward things I was passionate about just a few months ago. Developing a new idea, long distance running, traveling, and daily disciplines have all slipped to the back burner for reasons I’m still trying to articulate.

Maybe it’s the oppressive Texas heat wearing me down, or simply the weight of too many things I’ve willingly taken on to juggle at once. Whatever the cause, the pull to keep going has gone quiet.

It’s easy to get discouraged when things turn difficult, but if I’ve learned anything from the past four and a half years of being pushed out of my comfort zone and writing, it’s that staying with an idea, even when we don’t feel like it, pays off every single time.

Even when we don’t feel like finishing what we started, there’s hidden value waiting on the other side of seeing it through.

If we only push when we feel like it, if we only create when we feel like it, if we only try when we feel like it, then we never really cared. It was just impulse and emotion.

Seeing it through and “finishing the idea” isn’t done to impress others or for monetary gain. It’s often not even done for ourselves. Sometimes we have to stay consistent so that someone else can benefit from our output and, in turn, create the next great thing. Even when we never get to see the fruit of our efforts.

So we see it through.