Before D Day, when the troops were waiting to board the ships to invade the coast of France, Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force (SCAEF) in the European theatre, asked a soldier, if he was afraid. The answer was positive. Eisenhower replied in the following manner:

Well, you’d be a damn fool not to be. But the trick is to keep moving. If you stop, if you start thinking, you lose your focus. You lose your concentration. You will be a casualty. The idea, the perfect idea, is to keep moving.

(Source: D-Day: The Battle for Normandy by Antony Beevor)

I believe the idea of keep moving is an essential aspect of our life, not only on the real battlefield.

In our life, we face challenges all the time. Sometimes, our plan does not work as we schemed. Sometimes we got stuck with our career. Sometimes we face setback. Sometimes, we lose a battle, sometimes we lose the whole war. But to win and to succeed, we must leave our setback and failure behind us and move forward. We must keep moving.

Eisenhower told the soldier about fear which will start compounding once the soldier stops and start thinking about the fear. In our life, there is too much unknown, too much uncertainty. If we start thinking about these things, we might become hopeless and lose interest on moving forward. I believe the best way to deal with these unknown and uncertainty is to keep moving.

The idea of keep moving is not contradictory to have a definite plan and execute it. keep moving means you will make your scheme, work hard to execute it and if the scheme succeed, you will move to your next plan and keep going. If for any reason, the plan does not work, you should learn your lesson (failure is a great teacher) and keep moving forward. You should not hold the view that your plan did not work and there is no hope. Unless you keep striving, you may not find new opportunities.

I was watching a YouTube video of Anthony Hopkins giving an interview to Jimmy Kimmel. Anthony Hopkins is 80 years old and still, he is strong and active. Jimmy Kimmel asked him to share his wisdom which he has learned over the years. Anthony Hopkins gave a quick and simple answer - ‘just keep going, never give up’.

So, whatever happens, just keep moving, keep going and do not stop.