Trying and Failing - or - Not Really Trying

When things don't go right for you, what's the more likely reason ... that you tried your best and it just wasn't good enough ... or you didn't really try in the first place? A lot of times we quit before ever getting started. And as Wayne Gretzky once said, "You'll always miss 100% of the shots you never take." Now I'm not really much of a hockey fan, but I thought I'd do some checking on Gretzky's career stats to what I'd see. And I found something quite interseting:

It took Getzky 5,064 shots to score his record-setting 893 goals.

In other words, the guy who said "You'll always miss 100% of the shots you never take," made less than 18% of the shots he DID take. He missed 4,172 of his shots. FOUR THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY TWO!

In this context, the "Great One" wasn't really very good, was he? Yet he set the record for most goals scored in the NHL. And he was arguably the best ever in the history of hockey.

So the next time you're thinking about not even trying, do what Gretzky would have done - take a shot at it anyway!