Gratitude in action
The Mystery of Effort
Why do we try? Why do we get up each morning, set goals, chase dreams, fight through setbacks, and reach again for more?
The cynical answer is survival. We try because we must: food to eat, bills to pay, routines to maintain. But survival is only the foundation. Beyond necessity lies something deeper: a hunger for meaning, a desire to expand, a refusal to let existence slip by unnoticed.
Trying is more than survival. It is gratitude in action.
The Privilege of Striving
To be alive at all is rare. Most potential beings will never exist. You and I do. And because we do, we have the privilege — yes, the privilege — of striving.
Every attempt to learn, to love, to create, to risk, is an expression of reverence for this chance. We try not because life guarantees success, but because life itself is worth the attempt.
Trying is our way of saying thank you.
The Story We Are Writing
Think of your life as a story unfolding. Each choice, each risk, each effort is a brushstroke on the canvas. To try is to take up the pen and author your own narrative.
Without trying, our story becomes written by inertia or by the expectations of others. With trying, it becomes uniquely ours.
We may not always succeed. In fact, failure is guaranteed at times. But the attempt itself shapes the tale. No one looks back fondly on chapters where nothing was risked.
Rising Beyond Necessity
Other creatures survive. They hunt, eat, mate, rest. We humans can do that too — but we are also restless. We create art, build cathedrals, explore galaxies, write poems, plant gardens.
We try not only to endure, but to enlarge. To rise above necessity into significance.
This striving is our way of honoring the strange gift of consciousness — the ability to imagine futures, to shape them, to reach for them.
Scenes of Beginning
Picture someone lacing up shoes for their first run after years of inactivity. The air is cold, the muscles stiff, the odds of pain high. But still, they step onto the road.
Or a young artist buying her first paints, even though she fears she isn’t “good enough.”
Or a parent sitting by a child’s bed, deciding once again to pour love into a future that cannot be controlled.
In each case, the trying is the triumph. The outcome matters, but the act itself is already victory.
The Risk of Not Trying
The real danger is not failure but stagnation. Not the risk of effort, but the regret of inaction.
Those who never try may avoid disappointment, but they also avoid growth, wonder, and meaning. They live safe but small.
When regret researchers interview the dying, they hear the same theme: people regret more the chances they didn’t take than the ones they did. Failure stings, but regret corrodes.
Why Effort Feels Holy
Trying feels holy because it acknowledges both our limits and our possibilities.
- We know time is short, yet we still act.
- We know success is uncertain, yet we still reach.
- We know effort is costly, yet we still invest.
Trying is a way of aligning ourselves with the sacredness of existence. It says: this life matters enough to give it everything.
Practices of Trying
- Name one attempt. Ask yourself: what small risk could I take this week?
- Celebrate attempts, not just outcomes. Keep a “courage journal” of efforts made, whether or not they succeeded.
- Reframe failure. See each setback as proof that you were alive and reaching.
- Pair gratitude with effort. Begin each day by naming one gift, then one action to honor it.
The point is not to win every time. The point is to keep showing up.
Closing Thought
We try at all because life is worth it. Because effort is itself a form of reverence. Because not trying is worse than failing.
Each attempt is a thank-you to existence. Each risk is a way of saying: I will not waste this gift.
So lace the shoes. Write the words. Start the conversation. Risk the love.
Not because success is promised, but because life is too precious not to try.
For more like this, visit the broader project at life-savor.com, or explore the Life Savor book itself.
To learn more about Life Savor’s philosophy,
read Life Savor: Treasuring Our Gift of Life by Erik Victor Reed.
