"No! Try not. Or do not. There is no try," said Jedi Master Yoda to Luke Skywalker in the 1980 film, 'The Empire Strikes Back'. Yoda's wisdom in this one scene, let alone across the span of the six-blockbuster film series by George Lucas, is almost as influential as Jesus' Sermon on the Mount for my generation. Or at least it's likely quoted more often.
I have heard people say that trying is lying, or trying is dying. It's not just about the rhyme, though. If you look up the definition, trying is "causing strain, hardship or distress". Stress is the big killer, indeed. Why would we want to cause ourselves frustration? Shouldn't we just make up our minds to do something and then 'just do it'?
My six-year-old son keeps insisting that, even though there is no web cam on our computer, if he tries, maybe it'll work. Let's just try it, mom. He is talking about manifesting a piece of electronic equipment out of thin air!
Our innocence and our ignorance plague our ability to avoid trials and their inevitable errors. When we follow the wisdom of our elders and wise leaders, we may stand to skip a few hard trials.
I keep trying to learn how to play the guitar, without a teacher, of course. I can try until I am blue in the face, but until I actually take the time to truly learn how to play, I'm kidding myself. If I learn the chords, then I can figure out songs by ear (ironically, I can already read the sheet music). But it's the time spent memorizing, integrating, training the fingers and growing the calluses that earn one the right to say they can play the guitar. It's certainly not a matter of trying at all, but rather, of doing.
So, then, what about all the people who say to just keep trying? That you should try and fail but never fail to try? That true success is built on a mountain of failed attempts? That, if at first you don't succeed... try again?
I'm at an age where I can't use any more frustration to propel me forward - all it does now is upset me. I've realized how easily discouraged I have always been, which has caused me more than necessary levels of stress. Sometimes it seems futile to try unless it's ordained by the heavens.
Although I've found the life lessons in my personal disappointments, I must admit that I've grown shy of trying, because of the precedent of being let down time and again. The real kicker is that the person who has let me down the most is me!
Instant gratification, of yummy treats or 'putzing' instead of 'givin'er', over time, wears grooves into our patterns and we become the direct result of our habits. So? Do we have to choose the guilt response? Can't we choose better?
Master Yoda wasn't talking about giving up on ourselves. He and all the other great teachers, real or fictional, just point us to the power within us, urging us to go forward boldly and confidently to achieve our goals.
"Choice, a matter of, it is. Chance it not be," is what I think Yoda would say in his Kermit the Frog voice.
If it's meant to be, finding the right path is easy and the effort is worth it. If it's not meant to be, may the resistance be from the other end. This is how we are guided, because, just like children, we don't always know what is best for us. We can't always see very far down the road. There is something to be said for divine timing, too.
Perhaps all we need is more trust that things work out the way they are supposed to, because energy goes where it fits best. If you want something, resonate with it - even before you have it.
As the Rolling Stones say, "you can't always get what you want, but if you try, sometimes, you just might find you get what you need." Okay, Mick, I can try sometimes. I am pretty sure that no hard work goes unrewarded, but let's all be sure that no sagely Muppet goes unheeded!
