“Unlikely” is not the same as not worth trying

To do or not to do? That’s a question the modern mind poses frequently in the space of a day. Is this something I need to do? Do I want to do this? Should I? And on and on, at times at staggering speeds and around sharp switchbacks.

What we’re most often looking for is success(!). Success can mean any number of things, but essentially, it means that you got what you were hoping for.

If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll notice there have been times when getting exactly what you wanted did not turn out the way you thought it would. Was that success(!)?

The mind wants to label things it perceives ‘unlikely to succeed’ as risky. Usually, it’s what feels difficult, challenging, scary, and thus, not worth trying.

But unlikely and risky are two very different things. Risky means you stand to lose a lot, and unlikely-to-succeed means you don’t stand to gain much, if at all. If you plan to exercise six times a week but break your streak in week 3, you might say that you did not succeed, but what was the risk? None.

If the idea of taking small steps to tackle a big project or break a bad habit seems unappealing because you’ve made up your mind it’s unlikely to succeed, your mind deems it not-worth-trying.

That’s because the ego wants the safety of a guaranteed outcome, even though it fully knows you have no control over that. You only have control over your actions, your responses.

When you are ready and willing to face things as they are, you begin to understand that unlikely-to-succeed is not the same as not-worth-trying. You begin anyway. You let the old excuses and worn out ego stories chip away and fall to the sidelines. You let the light in through the cracks, focus on the present, and take a step forward.

Because moving forward is what matters and worth trying. You cast aside the word “success”, and trade it in for a better one: practice.

Only then does the answer to the question becomes clear: This is what I must do.