I'll try

And while we're on the subject of dreadful words, "I'll try" comes in a close second to "I can't". When my flute students (who generally are awfully cute and very talented) say "I'll try", I quote Yoda: "do or not do, there is no try". I love that quote! If you say you'll try, you're allowing for the possibility of failure. Failure is a judgement on the outcome of an action. Either the action produced the desired outcome or it didn't. In my mind, human beings decide if something is a failure-that's a value statement. Do we really need to delve into what defines failure? Do we really need to remind ourselves of the tens of thousands of situations where it looked as if failure had occurred when success was imminent? By the way, success is another judgement. We don't look at positive judgements the same way as we look at negative judgements.

So ban "I can't" and "I'll try" from your repertoire of responses. Or else I'll have "to try" to beat some sense into you. 500 hundred push-ups anyone??

In health with no trying,

Laura