Five Minute Friday : "Try"

Trissy recently introduced me to a little community of writers who participate in an exercise called "Five Minute Friday". She's started doing it on her new blog (!) and I decided to start trying to participate, though I may not make it every week. Here goes my first one!
This week's word is "try".

{Start time.}

Try. One of the first things I think of when I hear (or read) that word is a quote from a dear friend:

"There is no such thing as 'try'. There is either 'do' or 'do not'."

When I first heard it, I frowned, puzzled. I wasn't sure if I agreed with it or not. It was one of those things, "I'll have to think about that one...".

Of course there is such a thing as 'try'! If I honestly attempt to climb a mountain, read 50 books in a year, or cook a meal all by myself, I have 'tried' to do it!

But then I got to thinking, maybe there really is only 'do' or 'do not'.

Either I reached the top of the mountain, or I didn't. Either I read 50 books that year, or less. Either I got that meal on the table, or only part of it. Either I 'did' those things, or I 'did not' do them.

But lately, my mind has changed again. I think there's both. With the mountain, the books, and the meal, I really attempted to accomplish my goal. I 'tried'. That's true. So there is such a thing as 'try'.

{End time. I'm not finished with what I was saying though, so I'll keep going :) .}

'Trying' is not the goal however. Accomplishing ('doing') it is. It's the end result that has the value, and I think that is what my friend meant, the lesson he was trying (ha, no pun intended) to teach.

Yet even there, one can argue the point... If a lesson was learned in the effort, something of value did come from the 'trying'. And - "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." - maybe next time, success. And the 'try' will have become 'do'. And the 'doing' will lead to 'done'.