What would happen if you stopped trying?

 

I know you’ve had this idea for a while now.

You want to go for it and yet you wonder if you can.

I get these ideas too and they both excite and terrify me.

You worry about how it will all work.

If the idea will be good enough, if it will succeed.

You don’t want to risk disappointment or embarrassment.

You really don’t want to waste precious time or money on a whim.

Worry gets the best of you; you tell yourself now is not the ‘right’ time.

Yet your idea behaves like a nagging toddler, it won’t leave you alone. Finding clever ways to cross your path.  Subtle hints popping up in your newsfeed and appearing in your inbox.

You see words and images everywhere, all drawing your attention back to the idea, to a dream of something more.

You think about it often, you even talk about it with your friends.

You stir in the night, the idea taunting you toward consciousness, and in the dark cocoon it almost seems possible.

You make some plans, you tease the idea out.

You are buoyant and your excitement builds.

You decide to give it a ‘try’.

Days, weeks or even months go by as you continue to play with your idea.

Like a child within the womb you hold the idea close while you continue to gently nurture it.

There is a strange comfort to this, as if you are keeping your idea alive while not fully committing to birthing it.

You don’t want to expose it to scrutiny, to test its viability and worst of all risk it failing.

You keep ‘trying’ which really means you’re holding back.

You’re scared the idea will fail, you don’t think you’re ready yet for the big scary world.

The to and fro of second guessing starts grinding away your enthusiasm.

The ‘trying’ is both exhausting and frustrating.

Your idea does not want perfect it wants progress.

Progress that comes from commitment.

Your idea needs you to back yourself, to stop trying and start doing.

If you want it, crave it, yearn for it; then go for it.

Give it all you can.

Trust in your ability to make it happen, to course correct, to learn as you go and to survive whatever may happen.

Why?  Because what you do today is what matters.

Sooner or later time will run out and you don’t want to leave this world with your best ideas still inside you.