At least you tried...

Eh, at least you tried! We hear most of the times after we fail something.

“At least you tried” it’s the consolation prize that the kid who finished last receives from his mother.

I think we use this thing with trying as a safe measure in case we fail.“I can’t complain, at least I’ve tried. There was nothing that I could do”. And then we give up and let that behind.

Trying is not the same as start doing something. “I’ll try to lose some weight”, “I’ll try to quit smoking”, “I’ll try to wake up earlier”, “I’ll try…”, “I’ll try”.

I’m not saying that experimenting and trying things out is a bad thing. I’m saying about the things that you have as goals, things that you know that you should do or you want to do. But you always use this word “trying” as an excuse to fail.“At least I’ve tried” is offering your brain an escape chance. When you start working on a hard task, you have to burn the proverbial ships and offer you only one choice, win or die. It might seem a little bit extreme philosophy, but I’ve said for too many years that I will try this and that, ending up doing nothing.

To stop trying and start to do things, use the word start instead of trying. Because starting something implies a time as well. And you offer your brain an order to become active. To find solutions towards your goal. When you say “I’ll try to do this” mean that you want to do it, but somewhere in the future, far away in a distant time. And the brain says “Ok. We’ll do it later”.

Don’t just try. Do it. “At least I’ve tried" is a bullshit excuse.

Disclaimer

I’m not a psychologist nor a specialist in the matters of the brain. But this is a lesson that I’ve learned on my own body. For years I’ve said that “I’ll try to do things” and I’ve done nothing. Only when I’ve stopped trying and start doing, the wheels started to move themselves as well. I’m tired of trying, I want to do things. So I’ll burn all my ships if necessary.

Don’t try it. Do it.