What should I say instead of “I'll try” and “I wish”?

Rabbi Landau answers with a simple exchange of words: “Start replacing ‘I'll try’ with ‘I will.’ Replace ‘I wish’ with ‘I'm committing.’” The goal, he says, is to “speak like someone who believes in their own mission.”

This is not just a matter of style. He calls these two phrases the ones that “keep people stuck forever.” “I'll try” lets you avoid while looking good, and “I wish I had discipline” is a confession that you have already given up your will.

Why do the words matter so much? Because speech comes out of belief. He quotes the words “I believed, so I spoke,” and draws the lesson: if your words are soft, your belief is weak. “Weak language doesn't protect you, it imprisons you.” Change the words, and you begin to change the belief behind them.

Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level

Surface claim

Replace “I'll try” with “I will,” and “I wish” with “I'm committing.”

What may be behind it

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that someone who says “if only” did not say “I decide” or “I commit myself”; he put his dream away on the shelf of fantasies.

Deepest human truth

Speech is how inner faith comes out into the open. Committed words belong to someone who believes in his mission.

More questions from this teaching

• Why is saying “I'll try” not really humble?