What would happen if you just stopped trying?

What if you just stopped trying?

Something I have been hearing a lot of lately is, “I’m trying. Really, I am!”

It’s been used to explain the reasons (or excuses) for so many things, like not training regularly or not making great choices with food. The list is endless.

Our language, or the story we tell ourselves, does way more damage than we realise. What if the words you were saying to yourself were actually the trigger for NOT doing something? Telling yourself you are trying can oftentimes mask the fact that you’re not doing. Have you ever found that the story you kept telling yourself became the reason why you didn’t achieve what you set out to achieve, and then the cycle continued?

Try this as an example. Before bed you head off to brush your teeth, but rather than just brush your teeth you say to yourself – I am going to try to brush my teeth. What happens? First of all you have already hesitated, right? You may then start to find a few small reasons as to why, maybe, you shouldn’t brush your teeth. Then you might even find yourself distracted with another task and you’ve forgotten to brush your teeth altogether. Or, it’s suddenly not as important as the new task.

The same goes for exercising. You have every intention of going to the gym. Don’t TRY to go, just do it. Just like brushing your teeth, this should be automatic and should not require so much thought and dialogue. You shouldn’t give yourself the opportunity to become distracted or find something else that’s seemingly more important to do.

Eating well – I am TRYING to eat well, but then the biscuits keep falling into my mouth. Try this instead, I am eating well and making great choices because I want to nourish my body and feel strong and healthy. Once again don’t try to do it, just do it.

Interestingly, we may become really proud of ourselves for trying. All this does is attach a positive emotion to something that actually doesn’t move us forward. From here we become comfortable, and step out of our growth zone and into a spiral of getting nowhere.

Sometimes, I believe we are our greatest threat. Stop trying, start doing and watch how this simple change in language can have the greatest impact on your ability to move forward.

So what would happen if we just stopped trying?