Drawing Inspirations from the Words of Kipling

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What is life? Nobody has something concrete on this universal question. There are loads of wise words to describe life. I am a humble being with neither wisdom nor intelligence to answer this simple, yet, unanswered query. But, I know we live life. We live it but hardly understand it. What do you do when you work so hard but you fail at the end? How do you stir yourself to stand up and do it again? What is your purpose in life? How do you lead your life? Who determines your life?

These are questions that run down my 27 year old brain. Yet, I have no answer. I read books by Robin Sharma and others of his kind to find some answer. All I found was hypothetical ways to live a life. I try to live a simple life with a purpose. I work towards my purpose. I feel happiness and sadness too. I laugh and cry. I am successful but failure finds its gloomy hands into my life too, occasionally.  I stumble quite often but I stand up to do it again with my positive esteem. Life is not always what we vouch for. But  I know somewhere within myself that I must go on.

And I keep going on.

Whenever I fail in life, I think of the words in this poem. I have loved this poem when I first read it and I believe in it. The words of Kipling are so true that it helps us keep moving forward.

IF

If you can keep your head high when all around you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master,
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)