Jedi Wisdom from Yoda – Give Up Trying

What?! Jedi master Yoda advises not to even bother trying? Surely not! Surely that flies in the face of Jedi philosophy?!

Actually, I wouldn’t know the finer points of Jedi philosophy. What I DO know is that in this particular scene, Yoda’s advice really hit home and taught me a valuable lesson.

Luke Skywalker has travelled to the swamps of Dagobah (I think – Star Wars buffs will doubtless correct me if I’m wrong) to train to be a Jedi Knight under the watchful eye of Yoda.  As he struggles to master his craft, Yoda asks him to use The Force to lift his crashed space craft out of the swamp.

“I’m trying!” says Luke, somewhat exasperated.

Yoda replies “THERE IS NO ‘TRY’. THERE IS ONLY DO… OR DO NOT DO”

And my point is…?  Well, how many times have you told yourself “I’ll TRY to write that report today”, or “I’ll try to make time to visit Auntie Morag”, and just… well… never quite got round to it?

If you invite someone to a party and they say “I’ll TRY to come along”, in your heart of hearts do you think to yourself  “Great! they’ll be there!”?  Lets face it, you probably know that they aren’t going to pitch up, they just didn’t want to tell you to your face at the time.

“I’ll try” is very often a cop-out. A self delusion. An endeavour to dupe ourselves into believing that we are actually going to do something when, really, we kind of know that we’re NOT going to do it at all.

So take Yoda’s advice: stop trying. Decide to do or not to do. And then follow up and get on with it

Tags: Jedi, Jedi Knight, jedi mind tricks, Jedi training, luke skywalker, luke skywalker quotes, personailty development, personal development, personal effectiveness, positive thinking, self confidence, star wars, yoda, yoda quotes