Trying perfectly is in reference to a successful effort or challenge to overcome and/or accomplish a difficult circumstance in a person’s life. For example, we often hear of individuals trying to overcome a weight problem, and after a few days, weeks, or even months of trying, with a certain amount of success, they revert back to their comfortable eating or overeating habit, even though they were so proud of their effort and whatever success they were having while they were on their diet. “Trying” is the key word; they were trying, and that may have been the way they started out. Yes, they were going to try. With that word in mind, they were already posed to fail. Blessed are they who do not have a weight problem because the routine to lose and/or to maintain after loss is a very difficult thing. One has to be constantly vigilant and determined. However, successful efforts never start with the thought that I am going to try to lose weight or any other worthwhile effort in life. Successful efforts start with a simple, but clean, thought that I am going to “do” something. There is so much power in that way of thinking. Think of all the half-hearted efforts of people you know or have known. Whether their effort was to succeed in college, to build a house or refinish/restore a car or whatever else it may have been. If they started the project with the “disclaimer” that they were going to try (the very word “try” is a disclaimer) to accomplish a thing, they have already given themselves an excuse to fail. “Well, I tried!” I tried is always and readily available to them, excusing their half-hearted effort. There are legitimate efforts that fail, but not because someone had their disclaimer all warmed up and ready to say. Rather, they actually gave it their all and still failed. They are the people that everyone roots for, because it is obvious that they gave it everything they had and many even died trying. That is without question, giving it their all. I well remember while in basic training in the Army when we were required to go on forced marches. Some were grueling 10-mile treks with full combat uniforms plus 50 lb. backpacks and rifles in hand. We were required to be in a half-walk, half-run mode with Cadre yelling at us and ofttimes cursing us to move faster. There were some in our company who had never before been tested physically, and they could not do it. There were always personnel carriers bringing up the rear to pick up those who fell by the wayside, exhausted. Then there were others who were also less able to handle the gruelling stress of the march but who were determined not to give up, and though it was very hard on them physically, they made it to the end. They were the ones who “tried perfectly.” They were determined to finish the task even though it was a gruelling trial for them. I was a squad leader, and I had to set an example for the seven other men in my squad. I had been a hard working man for several years by the time I was drafted at nineteen. Physical labor (sometimes under stress) had been a part of my everyday routine. For many years, I worked as a hod carrier and many other very demanding physical jobs. I finished the marches tired but not exhausted. For me, it was not the challenge that it was for many of the others. The following story is a perfect example of someone “trying perfectly” and accomplishing something that no one else in recorded history had ever done.
This true story is entitled:
“The Power of Determination”
The little country schoolhouse was heated by an old-fashioned, pot-bellied coal stove. A little boy had the job of coming to school early each day to start the fire and warm the room before his teacher and his classmates arrived.
One morning they arrived to find the schoolhouse engulfed in flames. They dragged the unconscious little boy out of the flaming building more dead than alive. He had major burns over the lower half of his body and was taken to a nearby county hospital.
From his bed, the dreadfully burned, semi-conscious little boy faintly heard the doctor talking to his mother. The doctor told his mother that her son would surely die—which was for the best, really—for the terrible fire had devastated the lower half of his body.
But the brave boy didn’t want to die. He made up his mind that he would survive. Somehow, to the amazement of the physician, he did survive. When the mortal danger was past, he again heard the doctor and his mother speaking quietly. The mother was told that since the fire had destroyed so much flesh in the lower part of his body, it would almost be better if he had died, since he was doomed to be a lifetime cripple with no use at all of his lower limbs.
Once more the brave boy made up his mind. He would not be a cripple. He would walk. But unfortunately, from the waist down, he had no motor ability. His thin legs just dangled there, all but lifeless. Ultimately he was released from the hospital. Every day his mother would massage his little legs, but there was no feeling, no control, nothing. Yet his determination that he would walk was as strong as ever. When he wasn’t in bed, he was confined to a wheelchair. One sunny day, his mother wheeled him out into the yard to get some fresh air. This day, instead of sitting there, he threw himself from the chair. He pulled himself across the grass, dragging his legs behind him. He worked his way to the white picket fence bordering their lot. With great effort, he raised himself up on the fence. Then, stake by stake, he began dragging himself along the fence, resolved that he would walk. He started to do this every day until he wore a smooth path all around the yard beside the fence. There was nothing he wanted more than to develop life in those legs. Ultimately, through his daily massages, his iron persistence and his resolute determination, he did develop the ability to stand up, then to walk haltingly, then to walk by himself—and then—to run. He began to walk to school, then to run to school, to run for the sheer joy of running. Later in college, he made the track team. Still later, in Madison Square Garden, this young man, who was not expected to survive, who would surely never walk, who could never hope to run—this determined young man, Dr. Glenn Cunningham, ran the world’s fastest mile.
My friends, “That is Trying Perfectly.” Was he different than you and I? Could everyone or anyone “try perfectly” and accomplish similar feats? Most people want to remain in their comfort zone, and when something gets a little uncomfortable, they stop. Most worthwhile human achievement requires that we leave our com-fort zone. The interesting thing about doing difficult things outside of our comfort zone is that after a while, our comfort zone changes. Some people are comfortable when they have running shoes on and they are five miles down the trail. They may have, at one time, only found comfort in their lounger. Trying perfectly is having the moxie to overcome comfort zones and accomplish important and worthwhile goals in life.