Websters dictionary, the first definition of the word TRY is to make an attempt at.
In anything you do, in anything at all, your first movement towards accomplishment is to try. Before it happens there is the effort to try to make it happen. To stand up, you must first try to stand up. To sit down, you must first try to sit down.
Some things are very easy. You don’t have to try very hard. And then there are other things that are more difficult. You may have to try harder to say hello to to a stranger. You may have to try harder to forgive someone for something you hold against them. You may have to try very hard to sing in front of others.
There is a second definition of the word TRY which is to subject to something (such as strain or hardship or provocation) that tests the powers of endurance. The focus here is on hardship and persistence.
Trying is like a muscle that can be developed through use in difficult situations. “Try this ice cream” will not not improve your ability to take on new things in the same way as trying something that you’re unfamiliar with, something you fear or dislike. But, you can actually build the muscle of ‘try’.
This exercise developed out of the Supernaturally Shy class and now we use this in Scene Study as well. I find it very effective.To lean into a role, to let go, you fully try.
But life too! When you try, you may be fully successful and reach your goal, or you may be only partially successful. But you will never have failed when you try: it’s impossible to fail when you try. You will be stronger, you will have learned and you will have changed.
Test the power of your ability to try and develop that muscle of trying. You are in complete control of whether you fail or or not because your only failure is to let that muscle become weaker through lack of use. Try.
As your ability to try gets stronger, you will take on more and more difficult things. You might even start having fun exercising that muscle. You try things and don’t succeed, and then you try again. Your ability to try is stronger and so you try it three times, you try it four times, you try it five times, you try it six times…. until you, someone you thought could never succeed, will become indomitable.
It’s impossible for you not to succeed. It’s completely in your hands. Try.
MM