This question, “have you tried?” keeps pulsing through my mind. The other day I was admiring someone’s work and the impressive place they’re at in life. I wondered how they got where they are and how so much has been accomplished with all the other daily obstacles of work and caring for a young family. How does one person achieve so much while another struggles to do so little in comparison?

That’s when my nagging question came to mind: Have you tried?

The truth is I don’t always try very hard. I spend more time looking at pretty pictures and imagining the life I want than I do actually building that life into a reality. It’s like the problem everyone complains about with Pinterest where you spend hours looking through and pinning pretty pictures of elaborate meals and projects you will probably never actually taste or finish. This is not to say Pinterest or dreaming is bad. But dreams can become weights around our neck if we never do the work to see any of them achieved.

So I have to ask myself honestly, have I tried? Am I just dreaming or am I doing the planning and work that goes into making my dreams a reality? Maybe instead of sitting around envying the lives of others, I should be busier working and building a good life of my own.

I believe in a lot of ways we live the lives we create. We can’t control everything of course, but there is a lot of power in our hands to plan and work and make something of ourselves and our surroundings.

So the question I should really be asking myself is not, how did that person do so much, but rather, what can I do?

Have I even tried?