We're all saints in the making

How nice to be reminded that it's our personal holiness that matters, not our achievements.  We hear this in connection with the beatification of Pope John Paul II.  This means that if we think we could never be canonized saints because we have never done any of those heroic deeds like rescuing Jews from the gas chamber or rescuing dying homeless people from the streets of Kolkata we're thinking along the wrong lines.
It seems to be very human to think only in terms of results.  We see this in our courts all the time.  If someone attacks and tries to kill someone, what difference does it make, logically, whether the victim dies?  If the attacker tried his best to kill his victim but didn't manage to, surely his attempt merits the same punishment as if he had succeeded?