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“Many a false step was made by standing still.”
~Unknown
Amidst the backdrop of the American Revolutionary War, John Adams was quietly journaling one night when, not far away, guns fired and sent a blaze of artillery that lit up the Boston night sky. Although history will tell us it was General Washington’s continental army who attacked Charlestown in Massachusetts, John Adams was unsure of who was being struck, America or the British. That same night, he wrote, “But in either case, I rejoice, for defeat appears to me preferable to total inaction.”
When I first read this otherwise nondescript statement, I thought how interesting it was for Adams to “rejoice” at the prospect of war looming near. How could someone so committed to a cause—the liberty of the colonies—prefer defeat as opposed to no conflict at all?
Immediately, I thought of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who, in many speeches and sermons, reiterated the fact that inaction was just as deadly as violence and unrest. “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it,” wrote Dr. King. “He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
Here we have two completely different men from two separate eras in American history, and yet, their words resonate quite the same. With this, we get a simple premise: It is better to fight and to lose, than to not fight at all. (We can simultaneously replace “fight” with any other action, such as “write,” “exercise,” etc.)
What does this tell us about ourselves? What are we fighting for? Wouldn’t it just be okay not to fight at all?
The way I see it, and the inevitable truth, is that we all have struggles we will face. For Adams, it was the likelihood of dying for an idea (a new country, separated from England). For Dr. King, it was the likelihood of dying for a belief (blacks should be equal to whites). Within these thoughts laid the possibility of failure. What if the British caught these rebellious Americans? What if society never gave heed to blacks? Sure, we can count out these outcomes simply because that’s not what happened. However, in real-time, these fears were persistent.
I want you to think of something you’ve been putting off, something you’ve dreamt for a while that you just haven’t got the nerve to approach. (For example, I want to write a novel, but I keep coming up with excuses for not writing one.) Feel the sheer magnitude of your thoughts. Do you feel fear? Whatever you feel, let it sink in.
Imagine yourself on your deathbed, and surrounding you are all the ghosts of who you could have been and the things you could have done. Do you feel regret? Shame? Perhaps you’d be better off not seeing these images at all.
Now, shift your mindset. You’re on your deathbed, but this time, you’re surrounded by the memories of great success—memories of who you became and memories of the things you accomplished, despite all those setbacks and failures.
How do you feel? How would you feel if you knew you at least tried? The truth is that we won’t achieve everything we set out to do. BUT, it is better to at least try than to not try at all.
John Adams could have avoided riding to Philadelphia to sign the Declaration of Independence because of the fear of failure. It could have backfired—and badly. But, in his case, and for America’s, it was better to trudge along with the possibility of failure than to not move forward at all.
As we continue to move through the new year, remember that it’s okay to try new things and fail. It’s okay to move to that new country away from home. It’s okay to start meal prepping for the week. It’s okay to go to that open mic and sing out your nervous heart.
If none of it works out . . .
At least you can say you tried.
A quick message: I’m currently trudging along David McCullough’s appropriately named biography on John Adams. That was the inspiration for this post. Although, it didn’t come to me easy. In fact, ironically, I’ve been putting off today’s message for a while. Even I, myself, struggle with these fears of failure. What if it all goes wrong, I ask. Yet, as any great writer would have done, I wrote not only to you, my audience, but also to myself. I needed to hear these words just the same.