Try, Try Again

Yesterday, I was giving a woman a private yoga lesson. Her biggest challenge is balancing. Seriously, it’s amazing she doesn’t walk in circles with her lack of centeredness. So, when I wanted to put her through a series of challenging balancing poses, she balked. She couldn’t do it. She knew even before trying them that she’d fall out of them. And you know what? She probably would. But that’s okay. Because balance isn’t something you achieve overnight. It takes time to develop. And most importantly, it takes a willingness to do it.

So, I showed her how to modify the poses, slowly getting her to let go of her fears and trust that her body will respond positively. And she did it! All it took was for her to stop saying “I can’t,” and start saying, “I’ll try.”

I believe it was the great Yoda that said, “Do or do not. There is no try.” Clearly, he didn’t practice yoga. There’s a whole lot of trying in yoga. Trying to keep your back leg straight in Crescent Pose, trying to get your heels to touch the mat in Downward Facing Dog, trying to lift your ass off the floor and balance on your palms in Scales Pose. Because this stuff can be really hard. And yoga is a practice. That means most people won’t get it right the first time. Most people have to keep coming back to it over and over again before they can hold a pose in proper form for five breaths. And the great thing about yoga is that one day your practice might be perfect, but the very next it’s complete garbage. That’s the beauty of yoga. Humility is built right in!

In that sense, life is a lot like yoga. If you want to accomplish something, you have to at least try to do it. You just might fail. But at least you tried. You didn’t just walk away from a challenge. You faced it head on and it won. But maybe you keep trying. And maybe one of those tries succeeds. So, instead of Yoda’s “do or do not” philosophy, I prefer the mantra, “try, try again.” Because sometimes you first have to fail in order to succeed.

So, what is your biggest challenge?