Everyday Canvas

“Do, or do not. There is no ‘try’.”

Prompt: Take a quote from your favorite movie. This is the title of your prompt. Write it.

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The Empire Strikes Back is not my favorite movie, but this quote by Yoda is a favorite, maybe because I have a soft spot for all Yodas of the world, including my son’s deceased cat. On the other hand, the only quote that came to my mind from my favorite movie was, “Play it again, Sam,” and since I don’t know how to “play it again” in terms of my life—a life that I don’t want to re-live ever again as in the movie The Groundhog Day—“ I am not playing it again, Sam.” Thus, I’m reverting to, once and for all, Yoda’s words.

There is no ‘try,’ and that’s that. Only the timid or the evasive use “try” and, truthfully speaking, I am guilty of it, too. I may not always use the word “try” but possibly other words and phrases with similar meanings such as: Maybe I can…; I believe my ideas are…; if I may be so bold, let me say that… etc., etc.

Why am I--and why are those like me--with so much doubt and so little confidence? Why are we afraid to claim our ground and own our words and let our power show?

Whatever our reasons are, we need to aim at doing our tasks at hand with a positive attitude, but not with the attitude that we’ll only make an attempt and then let go. Instead of trying, we do it; we begin by finding the qualities inside us to reach that goal as we have to trust that they exist and that there definitely are ways to encourage those qualities to surface.

Our goals are not our problems, but how we approach them are. If a goal is not worth doing, why think of doing it or 'trying it' at all? We either do or don’t.

Imagine a hungry person at the dinner table. Does he think, “I’ll just try to eat” and only touches the food with the tip of his fork? No. He eats everything on his plate because he is hungry.

If we are hungry enough and determined enough, ”trying to achieve something” doesn’t let us go far. At some point in the game, we may even find ourselves with the opposite of what we want, which is frustration at having tried and failed. Yet, when we find something real in our experience, something worthy of being a goal, we need to connect to it in an authentic and serious way, so reaching that goal is no longer a question of trying. It is doing. It is, above all, being self-aware.