Play the Game Anyway

Let’s say that you are afraid that you won’t be able to achieve some outcome. Maybe it is unlikely. Or maybe it seems like too a long a shot. You decide not to take action, and to let it go. You’ve lived this long without the outcome you want, and you can survive without it now.

By failing to take action, you ensure that you don’t get the outcome you want, whatever it may be.

You do, however, have the opportunity to try. You can take action towards that outcome, even though there is no guarantee that what you do will work. But there is at least a possibility that what you do will work.

I know that Yoda says there is no “try.” I am telling you, there is.

When doing nothing ensures that you don’t get what you want and taking action creates a possibility, it only makes sense to try.

Now, to increase your odds.

Massive action increases your odds of getting what you want. Much of the time, things that seem out of reach are only so because the amount of work it takes to achieve it exceeds what most people are willing to do. Taking what looks like excessive action moves your odds up.

Persistent action isn’t a guarantee, but it’s the next best thing. You have to hit a stone in the same place over and over again before it cracks. It’s not the final blow that cracks it; it’s the accumulation of those blows that splits the stone. Many people don’t have what they really want because they were not determined.

Sometimes what you want isn’t something that you know how to achieve. Persistence is good, but so is changing your approach. If what you are doing isn’t working, you are getting feedback. Change your approach and try again.

When faced with the choice of losing without playing the game, or playing the game that you might win or lose, play the game.