“Do or not do. There is no try”

This is a quote from the iconic Star Wars character Yoda. He is so wise isn’t he? (I haven’t watched the newest film yet, so no spoilers please).

I’ve always found Yoda to offer deep questions to those he works with. They may not always understand the question, but once they ponder it, their brain takes on the challenge, and works out a way of moving forward, or answering the question.

We can all learn from this way of questioning and thinking.

Thinking through a problem

We all learn and process information differently. We’ve been helped over the last 18 months from the Mercury Model, to understand these differences. Some of us love new information, others of us take time to let any new piece into our head.

So when a friend or colleague asks us a question about some work we’re doing, we’ll all have a different response to it. Depending how they ask the question, we may be defensive, or accepting, and then our brain will do something different with that piece of information.

If we work with a coach, or have someone we use to bounce ideas off, they may well challenge us, just like Yoda does, and ask ‘difficult’ questions. I know I often think, “ooh, that’s a hard question to answer” when challenged in this way. But once I’ve let my brain mull the question over, and try a few different scenarios out so I can answer, I realise that it’s a question that goes to the heart of what I’m trying to do. If I can find the answer to this question, then I know I’ll have answers to more of the questions and problems I’ve been having recently.

Taking action – Do

do or not do. there is no try. yodaThere’s LOTS of motivational quotes about taking action. And my social media feed is full of ‘take action’ blurb at the moment, (as in, it’s all very well having these amazing ideas for 2018, but you’ll only achieve if you DO something about it).

It’s true! Only by doing will you achieve what you want.

And Yoda is right to. What do we mean when we say, “I’ll try”.

  • Will we try to do our best?
  • Will we try and contact that supplier we’d love to work with? Or,
  • Will we try to be the best parent ever?

What does TRY mean anyway? Surely we’re going to be DOING something whilst being our best at the time? Aren’t we BEING a parent & DOING what we think is best for our family at the time? And we either pick up the phone or we don’t with that supplier we want to work with.

It’s only by DOING that we’ll move things forward, or tick things off our list. If I TRY to complete everything on my list for today, I’m not focusing myself on each individual task I’ve listed. If I focus on the task and then DO that task, I’ve done my best and I’m making progress to achieve my daily tasks.

Choosing to Not Do

There will be things that we choose not to do, as they aren’t priority. Or they’ve been on our list for ages, and we haven’t done them yet, so are they important now?

By saying. “I’m not doing that”, we’re taking action on something. We haven’t failed. We’ve just prioritised what’s important to us. Life and business moves on. What felt important a month ago, may now be unnecessary, (and some may say, that’s why you didn’t do it at the time!), so cross it off the list and move on.

No try

I’ve always found it interesting that a rugby score is called a try. If you’ve ever watched a rugby match, then you’ll know that it’s a physically demanding sport, and everyone in the team tries hard to pass the ball, tackle, with the goal of scoring a try.

That’s the only place I can think of where you want to ‘try’. Every other situation we face, we want to DO and not simply TRY to do our best.

Try v – aim, attempt, do one’s best, do one’s damnedest, endeavour, exert oneself, have a go, make an attempt, make an effort, seek, strive, struggle, undertake

Collins Dictionary

Do you tell your children do “do your best”? Even if we use the word ‘try’ as from the definition in our dictionary, it says, “do one’s best”, and “make an attempt”. That’s all we ask our children to do – just their best on the day. That’s all any of us can do isn’t it?

If you need help taking doing and taking action, then join our Business Cheerleading Club which will support you take action to achieve the things you want.

Or, if you need more one to one support, book a coaching call with Tracey-Jane and work out what’s important on that list of yours and prioritise what’s left.