Was thinking of the old "Do or do not" Yoda line.
On the face of it, of course, it's silly. There is tremendous value to trying. We can learn some excellent lessons from trying and failing. Hell, 90% of #writing a book for me is writing bits that don't work and chucking them out.
Failure is part of the process.
2017 has been...tricky in ways that will make 2018 difficult. But every failure I encounter will reveal a new path, no matter how hard it is to see in the moment.
@Jacel @lizmonster I've more than once had it used against me as "if you failed to do something it's obviously because you didn't *try hard enough*," usually by "teachers." which is cruel by any means, but utterly crushing to use on somebody with a depressive disorder. :D which is why I internalized "Yoda is a FUCKING ASSHOLE" at a very early age...
@green @lizmonster @Jacel I've spent a few years training all variants of "I'll try" out of my vocabulary because my therapist pointed it out as innately meaningless, not a promise to do anything in particular; I should at least pick a concrete standard to hold myself to. In retrospect I am not sure whether this is a healthy approach or not.
@Kistaro @green @Jacel I'm gravitating toward defining "I'll try" as "Today I won't give up." That doesn't mean today I'll be successful, or today I'll win or finish. It doesn't even mean that today I'll get anything done. It just means that I won't give up.
I'm not sure that's a healthy approach either. 🙂