I was considering what it would mean should I not be able to run 13.1 miles on October 11, as I had planned in the early summer, and I came across a question:
Can there be failure in the presence of sincere effort?
I don’t think so; certainly not in the way that we consider failure as a failing or shortcoming of the individual.
I am of the mind to think that any specific objective that I set for myself lies somewhere on continuum of possibility. Sometimes I am aware of – and appreciate – the factors that impact the likelihood of my success, while at other times I do or can not.
In the Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda famously says to Luke:
“Do or do not. There is no try.”
It sounds good, especially in the context of a culture that encourages and expects the individual to strive for the unachievable by “picking [themselves] up by their bootstraps.” But as good as it sounds – and it really does – and as neat as it may read on a bumper-sticker, it is a fallacy nonetheless.
I set goals that I think are achievable, without recognizing the totality of the constraints that impact the likelihood of my success. If, despite sincere effort, I don’t succeed in achieving my goal, I don’t think that I failed. No, I think (and perhaps this is an exercise in pedantics, but I think not) … I think I would only be unsuccessful in establishing a goal that was achievable, despite the apparent reasonableness of my intentions.
I may or may not run 13.1 miles on October 11.
If I don’t, I’ll be disappointed.
I won’t be a failure.