Why You Should Try Something Three Times Before You Quit
The first attempt often tells you more about unfamiliarity than ability. Give a new discipline enough repetition to become informed before you decide it will not work.
“Do or do not. There is no try” makes a memorable movie line, but it is poor advice for learning. Scripture regularly uses the language of effort, diligence, striving, and pressing forward.
New things are often clumsy the first time because you have not yet learned what the experience actually requires.
The first try gives you information
Maybe you run farther than your body is ready for. Maybe you plan fifteen minutes of Bible study and discover you need more time. Maybe an outing with your children becomes much harder than expected.
That does not prove the idea is bad. It proves you now know something you did not know yesterday.
The second try should be different
On the second attempt you can adjust expectations, preparation, timing, equipment, or scope. You are no longer guessing about everything.
A better second attempt is not cheating. Adjustment is part of wisdom.
The third try lets improvement become visible
By the third attempt, the experience is familiar enough for you to begin feeling the satisfaction of improvement instead of only the awkwardness of novelty.
That third experience may still reveal that the plan needs work, but now your judgment is based on something more useful than one uncomfortable beginning.
Give good ideas enough time to become real
Paul’s language in Philippians 3 is forward-moving. Christian growth assumes continued effort.
Choose something worth trying in faith, fitness, friendship, or finances. Try it once. Learn. Adjust. Try it again. Then give it a third honest attempt before deciding what comes next.
Do not let the first moment decide the outcome.
Take the idea with you.
- 01What worthwhile practice did I abandon after one awkward attempt?
- 02What did the first try teach me that could improve the second?
- 03What will I deliberately try three times this week?
Listen to the original episode
This article was adapted from Episode 23 · Try Three Times. Continue with the podcast for the original teaching in Kris’s voice.
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