The Wisdom of “Do Or Do Not”

_Elsa_

The girls are really enjoying all of this. Grogu continues………

‘Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back has (arguably) one of the most iconic pieces of dialogue in the Star Wars franchise, and it’s delivered by Jedi Master Yoda. His new student, the talented but impatient Luke Skywalker, needs to get his X-wing out of the murky swamp on Dagobah in order to save his friends. Yoda prompts him to use the Force to retrieve the starship, and Luke says to his teacher, somewhat reluctantly, “All right. I’ll give it a try.”

Yoda’s response: “No! Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.” All Luke sees is this massive ship, which seems like it would be much harder to lift than moving a few rocks around. So Luke tries. And fails. But what happened? And maybe more importantly, why is Luke not supposed to try? Isn’t that counterintuitive to what a good instructor, let alone the most respected one in the galaxy, should tell a student? Something is missing.

We’ve all been there: you want to accomplish something, achieve your goals, complete a task that seems daunting, etc. But perhaps the most important lesson here is that “trying” isn’t good enough. When Luke said he would give it a try, based on his tone, body language, and attitude, he did not really intend to give his all. To give his best. To perform at the highest level.  

For Luke in this moment, trying equates to giving less than your best, or getting by on natural talent without working hard. Luke is strong in the Force, but he is also still learning, which leads to some frustration with his teacher and himself. He might be afraid to fail, or he might be tired from all of the intense Jedi training he has experienced. 

Either way, Yoda is saying to do your best, or don’t even bother. If you are not giving your all, then you aren’t putting your best foot forward. If you hope to achieve maximum results, you must give maximum effort. Anything less than that is simply less than your best. By trying (in this context), Luke is giving himself permission to fail. It’s an excuse not to work hard, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.’ (Source)

“I hope that I am not overwhelming you girls with all of this information,” says Grogu.

Kimmy looks at Nix66 and they both seem to be fine with it.

Let’s continue - Empathy and Acceptance

Start at the beginning – A long time ago in a galaxy far far away …