What is the meaning of 取り戻そうと in this sentence?


In the following sentence:

> 問題を無視することはできません。しかし、 問題にばかり注目していると過去の状態を **取り戻そうと** 努力することになります

The part where it says: 「取り戻そうと努力することになります」 more specifically that "そうと" where
does it come from? What's the meaning of that 「そうと」? I really hope you can
help me with this.




> 「[Verb 1 in Volitional Form] + **と** + [Verb 2]」

should be remembered as a set phrase meaning:

> "[Verb 2] in an attempt to [Verb 1]"

because it is used _very_ frequently.

「取{と}り戻{もど}そう」 is, of course, the volitional form of 「取り戻す」.

> "We should not ignore the problem. If we, however, focused only on the
> problem, we could end up working (too) hard in an attempt to recover the
> former situation (instead of making further progress)."

