The Dream Slayer

Written by, Bill H.

Here is a word that silently destroys more dreams, more relationships, and more personal growth than anything else……that word is trying.

Notice what happens in your body when you hear yourself or hear someone else say, I’ll try. There’s a softening, there’s a pulling back, an energetic step away from a successful outcome.

Here is the truth most people don’t want to hear. Trying is not commitment!

It’s a pre-planned exit strategy. The moment you say I’ll try you’ve already created an escape route. You’re essentially saying, “I’m not all in. I’m not fully committed. I’m leaving room to back out.

Trying is rooted in doubt, not belief. If you believed in yourself, if you knew it was possible, if you were committed, you wouldn’t say I’ll try. You would say, I will, I choose this. This is happening.

Trying is what we say when we want to create the illusion of effort, without the vulnerability of commitment.

Now let’s get honest. We say I’ll try because it keeps us safe. It protects us from failure, embarrassment, or the fear that we might not be good enough. But here is the punchline. Trying does not create any results; commitment does!

Let me give you an example….

Imagine I asked you to stand up from your chair. Just stand up. You’d either stand up or you wouldn’t. There is no trying in action! Now imagine, I say, okay, try to stand up. The moment you use the word try, your nervous system becomes confused. You hesitate, you don’t fully rise. You hover between sitting and standing. That is what trying feels like.

Trying is not movement; it is not progress. It’s hesitation wrapped with hope, and that is what most people call effort.

Hope is not a strategy! Trying isn’t a decision. Let me say that again. Trying gives you something to talk about instead of something to live.

When you say, I’m trying you are signaling that you are not sure, you are not ready, you do not trust yourself yet. If your energy’s hesitating, if your belief is conditional, then you’re trying instead of committing. You’re not signaling creation. You’re signaling doubt and doubt blocks any momentum.

So I am going to ask you a question and I want you to feel it, not think it. Where in your life are you trying instead of choosing and committing? Trying to start a business, trying to fix the relationship, trying to meditate, or trying to change habits, trying to believe in yourself, or trying to quit marijuana.

What would shift if, instead of trying, you said, I choose it. I commit. I will. Because the moment you choose, your heart and energy recognize commitment and activate clarity. Clarity activates movement. Movement activates alignment, and alignment activates results.

So here is my invitation. Starting today, remove the word try from your vocabulary. Replace it with commit, choose, I will, this is happening. Those statements carry belief and power. They carry energy, and they activate creation.

Trying keeps you in your personal prison, and commitment sets you free!

So the next time you catch yourself saying I’ll try pause and ask yourself am I truly committed to this, or am I looking for a safe way out? Because the life you want is not found in trying, it’s found in commitment and taking action.

Remember, choice without action is just a thought.

Do not use today, no matter what!

There is Hope for the Doctor in Recovery
Written by, Anonymous
I’m a marijuana addict in recovery, and I am also a physician. I have struggled with my addiction in secrecy for my entire life, with not even my sister knowing the extent of my use. I lived a double life—one where I was a “goody-two-shoes” and “smarty pants” and the other where I was a lonely and depressed stoner. The longer I kept this going, the more stressed I became, because I didn’t even know who I was or what I wanted. How could I advise my patients to quit their addictions when I myself was addicted and didn’t know how to quit? I had been high for so long that I didn’t know if I was smoking because I hated my life and had to get stoned in order to get through my day, or if I had let my addiction take control over me and it was ruining me. I was self-sabotaging.

I remember going to work high, caring for patients high, and even doing a lumbar puncture high. I put my patients in danger. I put my career in danger. All because I just wanted to get high. I skipped lectures and meetings in order to get high. Called out sick from work because I was too tired from getting high the day before, so then I’d smoke some more. It was an endless loop. For so long, I was able to maintain my smoking habit and achieve greatness, but I felt miserable and couldn’t enjoy the fruits of my labor. I felt invisible because nobody seemed to notice that I was high all the time, which made me feel like nobody cared about me or how I was really doing. I isolated myself. I felt useless, hopeless, and suicidal. Nothing mattered to me anymore. I had to take a leave of absence from my residency training in order to get help with my addiction, which truly was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I was scared that I was going to get fired from my job and lose everything that I had worked so hard to gain through years of sacrifice to completing 12+ years of higher education and working 80+ hours per week.

It was at that point that I learned about MA, and my life has been changed ever since. I now feel hopeful for the first time in a long time. My motivation is coming back. My desire to serve is coming back. I don’t feel like killing myself constantly anymore. I can wake up and go to work without feeling so overwhelmed and anxious that I call out sick in order to smoke weed. I can enjoy my hobbies without being stoned. I have been freed, and I want to remain free. By sharing my story, I hope that I encourage other healthcare professionals to speak up about their addiction to marijuana, so that we can all get better. I believe in this program, because it’s helped me so much already.

One day at a time.

Published in A New Leaf – July 2026

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