Do, Don’t Do Naught — There’s Always Try
Yoda may not have gotten everything exactly right when it came to his most famous saying…
Anyone who has ever seen Star Wars (and even someone who has not) is likely familiar with this Yoda quote: “Do or do not, there is no try.”
In the scene where this line occurs, the wizened old master is asking his young apprentice to do something seemingly impossible. When the student says, “I’ll try,” the master’s response is:
“Do or do not — there is no try.”
Now, perhaps Yoda was encouraging Luke Skywalker to reach beyond his perceived abilities.
Or perhaps he was just fed up with Luke’s whining and wanted him to shut up and go Nike: “just do it!”
(in other words, stop complaining and commit, already!)
But the problem with pithy proverbs is that there can be multiple interpretations of one short phrase. And the wrong one will point you in a dangerous direction.
In the case of the famous Yoda quote, a dangerous alternate interpretation can discourage people, causing them to give up sooner than they ought.
On trying and doing
Have you ever chosen not to do something because you knew (or thought you knew) you would fail?
You did not believe you COULD do it, so you chose to NOT do it, without even TRYING.
And yet perhaps you COULD HAVE succeeded. Even if you didn’t, the process of trying might have taught you a valuable lesson. But now you’ll never know, will you?
The truth is, there is no doing without trying.
I once surveyed a group of writers to find out what was their biggest struggle. Time management and procrastination were the overwhelming answers.
In other words: aspiring writers were not putting their butts in the chair and writing.
There were plenty of reasons for this, of course, from self-doubt to day jobs.
But writers do not create articles and books by not-writing.
It doesn’t matter if you think you are a good writer or not. You won’t know unless you try.
In fact, in most cases, trying and doing are pretty much synonymous.
The best way to try
One way to break through the fear-of-trying mentality is through the use of tiny habits:
If you want to exercise but the concept of working out makes you want to curl into a ball on your couch and drown yourself in Netflix, tell yourself that you will NOT go to the gym — you’ll just do one pushup per day.
That’s it. Just one.
Of course, once you do the one pushup, if you want to do more, feel free. But if you DON’T, don’t guilt-trip yourself. You promised yourself one pushup, you did your one pushup. That’s it. You tried. Good ‘nuff.
If you are a writer, make it your goal not to go to bed without writing five words. Or writing for one minute.
Make the goal so small it almost takes zero effort for you to try, and then do it, every day.
I have tried this for two years now, with an online writing group. Once a year, we publicly announce our tiny goals (mine is five words a day), and then check in with each other daily to make sure we all are on track.
It isn’t a perfect system (nothing ever is), but I’ve written tens of thousands more words through this one tiny habit than I would have without it.
Because once the tiny habit is in place, it’s easier to create and successfully achieve a bigger goal in time (such as the goal to write at least 1667 words a day for NaNoWriMo).
In the end,
Your attitude is the most important.
It’s better to try something than to give up without even attempting anything just because you believe “there is no try.”
When Edison was trying to develop the filament in his light bulb, he went through thousands of unsuitable materials before finding the one that worked. But instead of seeing his efforts as failures, he said,
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
You, like Edison, must try something before you decide whether or not it is doable.
(That is, if you really want to. I’m not talking about being peer pressured into eating deep-fried tarantula legs, here. No one benefits from that)
So go ahead. Pick something you’ve always wanted (but were afraid or hesitant) to do, and give it a try. Use the tiny habits technique and start today, doing it for a year, or at least a month, and see how it goes.
If it works, you’ve now got a wonderful new success to celebrate. If it fails, at least you learned something.
Always try. It’s better than doing nothing.
Ready to be a Brilliant Writer?
I’ve created The Brilliant Writer Checklist to help you clarify your message, reach more readers, and change the world with your words.
Get the manifesto here!
