If You Say 'I'll Try', You've Already Failed

Why you should never say that you'll try something. I'll give you a better mindset to use instead.

Kristjan Vingel profile

Kristjan Vingel

Language is powerful. Words are not 'just' words. They matter - a lot. The language we use while talking to ourselves is no different.

Nobody will say "I'll begin this thing but I'm not going to succeed" or "I'm giving it a shot, but I'll fail", so instead people say "I'll try" or "I'll take a stab at this."

But embedded in that language is already a defeat, we just don't want to admit it, so we bullshit ourselves. But deep down you know already it's a failure. But admitting that does not feel that great, so instead we say "I'll try."

I have a different take.

I don't 'try' things, I either do them or not do them.

That doesn't mean that made plans can't be changed, but the moment you commit to something, you have to be 100% certain you'll finish it.

Did Kobe Bryant go to try to win the game? Or did he go on to win it?

Andy Frisella says that generally, there's 2 types of people who start 75hard. There's these people who "try" 75hard and then there's this other group of people who tell themselves "I don't give a fuck if the world ends, I'll finish this program."

Which one are you?

k.

Kristjan Vingel profile

Written by

Kristjan Vingel

Hi, I'm Kristjan. I'm a software engineer from Estonia. I like to write about life and self-development.