The Grasshopper offered some insight towards success by giving a reverse definition: “Inertia is the handmaiden of failure.”

Failure is most often tied to failure to try.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have been prejudiced to the word “try” by my late teacher Dr. Dave Dobson who claimed that “try” was an excuse word we learned in toilet training. When we sat and went in our pants and were admonished by our parent or caregiver, we found that saying something like “I tried to make it to the bathroom” absolved us from responsibility. We took that excuse word with us into adulthood.

Dave suggested the phrase “make an effort” indicated action that the word “try” lacked. When you say, “I made an effort,” it allows questions about what specific efforts were made. There’s more information available with “make an effort” than there is with “try.”

Inertia keeps us from making efforts or trying. It is an insurance policy to fail. Making an effort paves the road to success. It doesn’t guarantee a smooth road, but a road nevertheless. If you sit at the fork, you’re guaranteed to get “forked.”

I recently watched the PBS special on songwriter/singer Carole King where this incredibly accomplished woman had this to say:

“If you want to do something, go for it, try. Don’t tell yourself you can’t make it. Don’t let your parents tell you you can’t make it. Let the world tell you you can’t make it, after having tried. Or maybe let the world discover you, but don’t fail to try. Because if you don’t try, you can’t succeed.”

I think the purpose of this post is to get us all to start giving attention to inertia so we can metabolize it and discover that making an effort leads to results and it keeps us from making trying excuses.

All the best,

John