There is No "I Tried" in Success - By Lora Morrow

Those who say winning is not everything have probably never truly won anything because they do not know the true meaning of success. To recognize success, it is necessary first to define failure.

Failure is the refusal either to establish a plan or to work persistently toward its accomplishment, regardless of the challenges.

Most of us were never taught that failure is a matter of choice or that success is a matter of choice. Failure is not, as many believe, the result of lack of talent, money, time, or opportunity. Failure is simply the refusal to create opportunity and to establish goals or objectives in your life and to work toward their achievement. When talking to people who have neither goals nor motivation to succeed, you'll find that their lives have no excitement and no purpose. They feel like failures--and at that point they're justified in their feelings.

To succeed, you will constantly find yourself facing steep, foreboding cliffs and seemingly bottomless crevices. You will be doing things you have never done before. But if you want more from life than to get halfway up the mountain, you first will have to make the decision to go all the way. You may know neither exactly what is ahead nor how you are going to handle it. The only alternative, however, is not to go.

When striving to achieve your goals, there is no such thing as "trying."

That's right! We have all been told from the time we were children that it does not matter if we win or not, just as long as we try hard. This may be true in competition, such as an athletic contest. In that environment, we will run into people we could never beat, and the only satisfaction is that we gave it our all.

But in real life, where the objective is to achieve, that is one of the greatest lies you can tell yourself or anyone else. "Trying" is a word intended to rationalize failure. It is an excuse. In truth, when reaching for any objective, short term or long term, you either succeed or you don't. There is no in-between. "Trying," therefore, is not real.

Lack of immediate success, however, is not failure. It is nothing more than the feedback you may need to modify your target date and even your plan for reaching your goal. "I tried" is a quitter's statement. It means you have given up, that you have decided to continue your life having not reached your goals. This attitude is devastating to your personal effectiveness.

Drop the "I tried."

When you run head-on into a brick wall, find a way over it, around it, or through it. Get yourself back in the race with a new plan for winning.

Physical problems and conditions are great examples of "brick walls" because they occur and recur without warning. It is up to such a person to set a goal to keep going. No one, including doctors, can make such a decision for you. You must keep going until you find the right answer for yourself. Only you know what is right and what you can do.

The number of times you fall down does not determine whether you will eventually reach the top of the mountain. It is how many times you get up and get moving again. Implanting the word "try" in your mind is an acknowledgment that it is okay to give up instead of get up. Failure occurs only when you quit or make excuses for your inability to succeed. "Trying" is, therefore, lying to yourself about what you are really doing.

"I tried" is not an acceptable excuse. (But then, no excuses are acceptable alternatives to success.) Using the word "try" creates an illusion in your mind that your effort produced an "almost win" and stops you from moving on. Accepting failure as an alternative, consciously or unconsciously, diminishes the effectiveness and power to achieve your goals. Conversely, using the word "do" creates the opposite illusion in your mind that your effort produced a "finish until done" and helps you to move on.

I want to ask you a personal question. Five years from now, what will you be doing? Where, what will you be?

I've heard many persons say, "I want to get my problems under control, then I will go and do something." I'll let you in on a little secret: You may never get them fully "under control." What then? Are you going to waste your lifetime waiting for something to happen, or are you going to cause something to happen?

Fourteen years ago, I made a choice. I decided to graduate from college in the year of 1999. The doctors had provided me with little hope that I would ever overcome my epileptic seizures. Moreover, tests revealed that my problems impaired my cognitive abilities so much that my I.Q. would dip considerably when I was going through my worst times.

But I decided at that time that, come 1999, I would be having seizures with a degree or without one, so I might as well be having them with one.

In January 2000 I received my diploma: Bachelor of Science in Psychology. Yes, that was from my graduation ... in 1999. All during that ensuing four years, I suffered three types of seizures: tonic-clonic (grand mal), partial complex, and petite mal. Yet my diploma hangs on my wall ... just above my Master of Science certificate.

And I haven't had a tonic-clonic seizure in years. You see, that was a goal, too.

So where will you be? Five years from now is coming. There is nothing you can do about it. Are you going to wait until your circumstances are ideal before you begin your quest? If so, when the time comes to leave this world, you may very well still be waiting.

Okay, so you will "try." Okay, so you will fail. There is no reward in life for trying, only for doing! Set your goals, start on them now, and get them done!