It’s the early 80s (or a long, long time ago in a galaxy far away), and Luke Skywalker is having a training sesh with the Jedi Master Yoda on planet Dagobah. Our hero Luke is frustrated that his T-65 X-wing is stuck in the swampy mess of an uncharted planet.
When confronted with the task of the force, Luke admits that he will try. Yoda, in his infinite wisdom, exclaims, “NO! Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.”
And then you need to watch the movie to see what happens next, obviously.
But from the moment those words were exhaled through Yoda’s vocal chords, they rang not only through Luke’s ears, but spilled into the realm of reality. Stamped across motivational posters, printed on saavy t-shirts, and tweeted by thousands, Yoda’s words spell out a philosophical certainty 30 years in the making.
But what if he was wrong?
Yoda frolicked around the Star Wars world as a Master Jedi until the ripe approximate age of 900. So we can assume he knew a little bit about life.
Yet, all great philosophies must be questioned. Even the ones as simple as “do or do not.”
If we break it down, Yoda is essentially saying you either accomplish something, or you don’t, and if you aren’t going to accomplish something, then there is no point in trying.
So, we got two things going on here. The positive connotation: absolutely 100 percent achieve something without failure. The negative connotation: absolutely 100 percent do not do something whether or not there is a chance of failure.
The negative connotation is a tad overwhelming and a little bit depressing.
So here’s my question. Why not try something, even if there is a slight chance of failure? Or massive chance of failure? Or even if you know you are going to fail? Don’t we learn more from trying than doing nothing at all?
Yoda believes you either do it, or you don’t. Simple as that. But he is not human, and we are… so, ya know, we humans err on the side of uncertainty. We humans feed off failure. That is how we improve.
If we actually did listen to Yoda, there would be so many things left untouched. Forgotten. Undone. Failure would keep us from trying. J.K. Rowling would have never published Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone because if she would have known how many times she was going to fail, she wouldn’t have sent the manuscript to any publishing companies.
I mean, eventually she “did.” But at the cost of trying. And then she made millions. And then people started mixing up Yoda with Dumbledore, as this Google search I typed resulted:
If we want something, we should go for it anyway, even at all cost of failure. If we don’t get it the first time, we try again. We don’t just “do not.”
Well, maybe some people choose to opt for Yoda’s “do not.” But not you. Not Luke Skywalker; he knew what was up.
See, Yoda was a smart guy. When he says “do or do not, there is no try,” maybe he’s actually saying accomplish whatever you set out to do, because the option of not doing something really isn’t an option at all. He’s an ironic little fellow.
But we still got to try, regardless of Yoda’s backwards grammar.
So, when faced when the possibility of accomplishing something, there is more than just “do or do not.” Maybe we should really be telling ourselves: “Try until you do.” **
Michelle Hand
** I can’t guarantee that this new quote will ever become as famous as Yoda’s spoken words. But hey, they are making a new Star Wars movie so maybe I can ask them to squeeze “Try until you do” into the script somewhere.
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The way I interpret the quote, I do not believe he’s wrong. “There is no try” means put your heart into it if you’re going to “do” it. Rowling did put her heart into it when published Harry Potter.
But cool observation.
You miss Yoda’s point badly. Yoda is not saying don’t try. He is saying the opposite. He is if you chose to give up because something is too difficult or you do not succeed on the first try, why try in the first place. Yoda is actually saying don’t give up (or keep trying until you achieve “do”).
Couldn’t have said it better. That’s perseverence, right there :D
Actually, if you read the books that take place after the movies, Yoda is saying something completely different. Yoda doesn’t see any attempt as a “try”. No matter the outcome (if you do what you set to accomplish or if you do not obtain the intended outcome), you have DONE something. You have grown in your attempt. Even if you “failed” to accomplish what you intended, you have grown and become more wise. You grow as a person and learn many things anytime you set to accomplish anything. Even if you don’t succeed at first, your next attempt will undoubtedly be more successful because of what you DID when you “failed”. There is no try, because you grow and learn with even action you take. So, you should never look at something as a failure. Even if you don’t accomplish your set goal, just by attempting it you have succeeded in growing as a person.
Try is a bad acception. You shell do. Not try. if you try you can fail. if you do, you can’t fail. I also remember Master Miyagi’s quote “Here, karate, same thing. Either you karate do “yes” or karate do “no.” You karate do “guess so,”
[makes squish gesture] just like grape. Understand?
short sayings like this are usually pretty ambiguous; you just happened to choose about the most shallow interpretation of it. Do or do not, there is no try – basically means clear the mind. When you ‘try’ something you exert a mental effort to complete the task at hand. You have to trust yourself to be able to accomplish whatever it is you set out to accomplish – without thinking. Especially when it’s something that comes naturally to you (the force, in the case) or something you’ve practiced repeatedly. You have a lot to learn young padawan.
Do or do not are actually the only options there are. Because, when you set out to do something, regardless of how many attempts, you either do, or do not.
I took it as him saying if you’re going to “try” as in, just try it once, and then give up, youve already failed. Basically its like, trying is kinda pointless if you know you are just going to give up and use it as an excuse
No, he is saying “do or do not, there is no try” to inject a positive meaning to the situation. “trying” is a word that is almost meaningless, what does “trying” ever accomplish? Things are literally done only by doing. Trying implies effort and fretting. Yoda is wise and wants to elimate “trying” and add assertiveness to the situation at hand.
I disagree with your “negative” interpretation of the quote. You seem to think he was saying ‘either know you will succeed or do not attempt it,’ but I think what he was saying was ‘at whatever you attempt you will either succeed or fail, but do not allow the mere attempt to be your objective.’ In other words, ‘do not simply try and leave it at that, rather do what you set your mind to, but if you lack that conviction then do not, for without conviction you are doomed to fail.’ But then, maybe I’m just thinking too much.
That quote, as famous as it is… is in itself taken out of context. Luke tries to extract his X-wing, but fails, the space ship sinking further into the waters. Luke storms off and says “It’s impossible!” Yoda then does what he does, and Luke is then amazed saying “I don’t believe it!”, to which Yoda replies “That is why you fail.” The one little quote that people put on t-shirts is just a small part of the lesson that he is trying to teach his student.