Catch

Catcher, originally uploaded by diahn.

Don't you just love to try new things? I do. I don't always succeed (I tried knitting - I really wanted to knit - just couldn't do it.) but I love to try. Sometimes I have to try things more than once to decide I can actually do it. I recently started playing guitar. I've tried on more than one occasion to play, but never could get my fingers to cooperate. But, over the summer I decided to try again, and lo and behold, something clicked and now I'm playing. I'm still playing basic stuff, but I've actually played complete songs. In public.

I don't understand people who don't want to at least try. My older son, D, is one of those people. He's usually content to just watch on the sidelines as others try new things. He's a great student of trying new things - it's the application of trying that he tends to skip. Until this fall, that is. He's played baseball for about three years, now - and has done pretty well - he's a great hitter. But this year he went up a league and they have the kids catching behind home plate. Totally new. The coach asked the kids who wanted to catch and D volunteered immediately.

I didn't know all this was going on until I saw him walk out onto the field with all the gear on. I couldn't believe it. I was so proud of him - he walked awkwardly and looked like it was hard to see out of the mask, but he didn't give up. The coach threw a ball at him that hit him in the facemask (on purpose) and he didn't even flinch. I was so proud. He TRIED! And he succeeded. He ended up being a pretty good little catcher.

I think the key to trying is to throw the fear of failure out the window. We need to redefine what it means to succeed. In order to succeed, one has to actually try, therefore success lies in trying, not in doing something perfectly. Perfection is boring, anyway.

So - go try something new. Pick one thing you've always wanted to do and just try it. It doesn't have to be big, and it doesn't have to matter a hill of beans in the long run.

Just try it.