Hi Jim,

We can come back to this (perhaps on podcast #12). I understand what you’re saying here. If the word was some newly manufactured word instead of “try”, the same could be true. It all comes down to our internal meaning of the word, at least in my opinion. I’m curious to ask Mike on the next podcast.

Your point is well taken though. If someone “tries” to clean up a mess before the rain, we recognize the external variables. But if someone “tries” to “find the time” to come over and help me move a sofa, that pretty much means they aren’t coming 🙂

I’ve heard Tad James say similar this about trying, but for me personally trying has never implied failure. I try lots of things that I succeed with. For me trying acknoldges that in some tasks I do not have complete contol over all the variables. For example, I had 35 trees cut down last week and the stumps grinded, leaving a huge mess in my yard. I told my wife that I wanted to try to get the mess cleaned up before it rained, which was perdicted for 24 hours later. Several cercumstances could influence whether I got the job done, including the accuracy of the forcast. I got the job done, before it rained. For me, it takes some pressure off to use the word try when I don’t have control over all the variables.