Every once in a while I still catch myself saying, “I’ll try”. I don’t want to become a “Trying” person. I want to remain a reliable one!

There are certain attributes that I’ve most that the people whom I most admire share. One of them is kindness. Another is that they rarely if ever say “I’ll try”.

They know words have power and tend to use phrases like “I’m on it”, “It’s as good as done”, “You can count on me”, “It’s handled”, or “Will do”. And when they say they will do something they very consistently do it.

Was it Yoda who said, “There is no try! There is do or do not!”? I believe there is much wisdom in that concept.

One of my earliest lessons related to “trying” happened many years ago when someone in a business meeting began a sentence with, “I’ll try.” The meeting was immediately interrupted and someone asked us all to place our pens on the table. Then they asked us to try to pick them up. As we picked them up, we were advised that we hadn’t been asked to pick up the pens. We were asked to TRY to pick them up. The speaker added that we either pick up the pen or we don’t, but trying doesn’t belong in that sentence.

Words like “try” are mushy. They give us an out. They communicate that we think there is a good chance that we may fail. It’s not exactly a confidence-building word for the people hearing it or the ones saying it.

That’s why I’m focused on ridding that “try-ing” word from my vocabulary.