It’s not always easy, but you have to try

I got a promotion and I raised nearly $21,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society during a pandemic.

This is not a brag. They are facts.

I got the promotion and I raised the money because I tried.

I worked hard.

I earned it.

And I wasn’t alone. My friends tried. Thankfully, many of you helped. Trying isn’t easy. Sometimes we fail even when we try our damnedest.

Lord knows I have tried other things and failed and failed and failed.

Those failures make you stronger, true. They and societal pressures and selfdoubt can also get in your way.

I thought of a hundred reasons not to try to get the promotion or raise the money for a deserving charity.

They — whoever they are — would never pick me.

This is not something I’ve done before.

That would be hard even without the pandemic and the turmoil of 2020.

Nobody like me has ever done this before.

Who do I think I am? I had to come up with reasons to try.

I gave my word to organizers of the Dayton Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Man and Woman of the Year campaign.

My team was in it to win it.

Cancer doesn’t stop during a pandemic.

The job is an amazing opportunity.

My skills can help foster understanding in the community.

I can do it.

It sounded fun and I like fun.

I got the promotion and I raised the money, but the reality is that we all have to try every day.

Getting out of bed every day is the first step.

Oftentimes, trying our very best is the only thing we can do.

That has been particularly true during these gloomy days where nothing is promised, so much is at stake and so many things are out of our control.

You try to get through the day.

You try to provide for you family.

You try to make the world a better place. Trial and error. It doesn’t always turn out the way we’d like. Rejection is a thing. Defeat is a thing. Pain is a thing. Those things are good, but none of them is worse than not trying.

The opposite of not trying is the death of the soul.

It is regret.

It is recession.

It is stagnation.

Boo to that.

So I tried and was successful.

That might not be the case the next time, but no one will be able to say I didn’t try.