Do it anyway

by Kent M. Keith

Publisher: New World Library Published: 2008 Category: Personal Empowerment

Living a meaningful life often means choosing to do what's right even when circumstances seem to conspire against you. This powerful guide explores the paradoxical commandments that can transform how you approach life's challenges and disappointments, offering a path to personal meaning that doesn't depend on external validation or success.

At the heart of this work lies a profound truth: the meaning you seek in life comes not from outcomes, but from your choices and actions. When you help people and they respond with ingratitude or accusations, when you succeed and attract false friends and enemies, when the good you do today is forgotten tomorrow—these frustrations can either stop you in your tracks or become opportunities for deeper personal growth. This book argues compellingly for the latter approach, presenting a philosophy of resilient purpose that has resonated with millions around the world.

The foundation is built on paradoxical principles that acknowledge life's inherent difficulties while refusing to let those difficulties dictate our choices. Rather than sugar-coating reality or promising easy solutions, this approach embraces a mature understanding that doing meaningful work often means facing opposition, misunderstanding, and setbacks. Yet it maintains that these obstacles are precisely why our choices matter so much. When you act with integrity despite knowing you might be knocked down, when you give your best even though it may never be enough by others' standards, you reclaim power over your own sense of purpose.

Readers will discover how these principles apply across every dimension of life, from personal relationships to professional endeavors, from community service to spiritual practice. The guidance provided isn't abstract philosophy but practical wisdom for daily living. How do you maintain your values when others seem to be winning by abandoning theirs? How do you keep building when what you've built keeps getting torn down? How do you remain honest and frank when it makes you vulnerable? These questions are addressed with both depth and accessibility.

What makes this approach particularly valuable is its recognition that personal empowerment doesn't come from controlling outcomes or protecting yourself from disappointment. Instead, true empowerment emerges when you act according to your deepest values regardless of the response you receive. This creates an internal locus of meaning that cannot be taken away by external circumstances. When you help people for the sake of helping rather than for gratitude, when you pursue what's right rather than what's easy, you step into a different way of being in the world.

The book also explores the spiritual dimensions of this philosophy, touching on themes of servant leadership, unconditional love, and finding God in unexpected places. There's a recognition that living paradoxically—doing good despite negative responses, loving despite being taken for granted—connects us to something larger than ourselves. This isn't about martyrdom or self-sacrifice for its own sake, but about discovering that the most fulfilling life comes from focusing on what you can give rather than what you might receive.

Throughout, readers encounter real-world examples and practical applications that make these principles tangible. Whether you're struggling with difficult people, facing career challenges, working for social change, raising children, or simply trying to live with greater integrity, the framework provided offers both inspiration and guidance. It acknowledges that this path isn't easy—paradoxical living requires courage, persistence, and faith—but it argues convincingly that it's the path to genuine meaning.

For anyone who has felt discouraged by others' responses to their efforts, who has wondered whether integrity really matters, or who has been tempted to give up on their ideals, this work offers a refreshing alternative. It validates the difficulty while insisting that difficulty doesn't diminish the importance of the choice. The invitation is to live anyway—to love anyway, to do good anyway, to be honest anyway, to build anyway—and in doing so, to discover a deeper, more resilient form of personal empowerment that transforms both yourself and the world around you.