How do you try anyway, not knowing whether you'll succeed or fail?

Pre-College Topics High School Cafe
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<p>You have to try acknowledging the fact that failure is a possibility. Absolutely nothing in this world has a guaranteed 100% success rate, except maybe dying after 100 years. In any kind of a situation, there are going to be people who are successful and people who are not. Can you imagine how good it would be if you succeed, and how bad it would be if you failed? Next weigh your chances, you say you don’t know, but do you mean the chance of success and failure is 50/50, 60/40 or more like 90/10?</p>

<p>Now ask yourself how much effort you have to put in. Are you doing 20 hours of work per day to try and succeed? 4 hours? half an hour? Then ask yourself the ultimate question: given how good it would be to succeed, how bad it would be to fail, and the chances of each, am I willing to put in the amount of effort I am now to continue to an outcome? If you’re not feel it’s worth it, don’t continue because it won’t be worth it, obviously. (Talk to others like friends and family about this too, to get perspective about your chances and prospects).</p>

<p>If you feel like not continuing, why not lower that goal to something more manageable? Say my goal now is to make Harvard my safety, but figure err, that’s ridiculous. I might decide to settle my goal on making my state flagship my safety instead. This makes the chance of success much higher, which proves to be worthwhile to keep putting effort.</p>

<p>Some people choose goals that are challenging, as in it will be a gamble to see if they succeed (reaches anyone?). If you do succeed knowing there is a chance, your success will just feel so much better. Nothing stops you from choosing an unchallenging goal with 90% success rate however, but that’s just not very exciting. Hope this helped.</p>

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<p>sometimes getting off the internet and going for a run can help</p>

<p>and then coming back, pulling up your calendar, and planning</p>

<p>when you have a plan you’re less likely to feel hopeless. and you can focus on precisely what you’re doing instead of the long-range goal, which is kind of comforting.</p>

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<p>By not trying, you’re guaranteed to fail 100% of the time
By trying, you have a chance at success</p>

<p>That’s pretty much it.</p>

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<p>People who don’t try will never realize how high they can go.</p>

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<p>People sometimes ask me: How did you do that? How did you manage to win -? How did you…</p>

<p>They never realize that for every time I win, I fail many times more. For me life is a numbers’ game. Ask 100 girls out, odds are that some are going to say yes, no matter what. Apply for 100 scholarships, you will get one.
It’s just a philosophy for me… and that way falling down doesn’t hurt that much.</p>

<p>(And for all that can’t be covered by that: Arrogance is my most useful sin - pride doesn’t allow me to lose. That doesn’t mean I don’t write bad grades or something like that. But I always make sure to get a good result. Even if it means 7 hrs of additional studying a night)</p>