"Do or Do Not. There is No Try.”
I’m sitting on the floor with a bowl of Starburst fruit chews in front of me, my eight-year-old hands carefully choosing the colors in order so as not to have too many of the same flavor in a row. There is a wrinkly green Muppet with big weird ears on the giant television screen in front of me, kind of like Kermit the Frog, only he sounds like Fozzie Bear. He plays a trick on Luke Skywalker. The great Jedi master Yoda is not at all what our young hero expected.
As a kid, I remember watching the original Star Wars trilogy at our neighbor’s house across the street, because they had a big screen TV and let me eat their candy. I was devastated when old Obi Wan was struck down by the evil Darth Vader, shocked when he claimed to be Luke’s father, laughed when cute Ewoks hit Stormtroopers with rocks, riveted by the excitement of the trench run and speeder bike chase, idolized Princess Leia who never showed any fear, and wanted desperately to be as cool as Han Solo who absolutely shot first.
But the story and lessons that play out on the swamp planet of Dagobah would only resonate with me years later as I began to see the wisdom of Yoda through the eyes not of a young, hotheaded teenager like Luke, but as a parent trying desperately to impart that same wisdom on my own kids.
Like any good Master, Yoda sets out to teach the most crucial element of Jedi wisdom: the power of the Force comes from belief. When assigned what seems an impossible task, Luke says, “I’ll give it a try,” to which Yoda responds, “Do or do not. There is no try.” Because Yoda knows either it can or cannot be done— not because of physical strength, but the power of the mind. That if there is any doubt in young Skywalker, if he lacks the courage of his conviction, he will fail. And so when the strong young man is unable to raise the X-wing out of the swamp, the small, ancient one does. When Luke can do nothing but look shocked and say, “I don’t believe it!” Yoda responds, “That is why you fail.”
When we're kids, it’s easy to believe we are unstoppable. We have big dreams of being rebel pilots, princesses, or movie stars. To save the world from evil or get paid a lot of money. And certainly, a lot of people do those things, which leads me to wonder how often they doubted themselves. It seems the older we get, the less we believe in our own ability, in the possibility of achieving those dreams. We make excuses, we let the skepticism of outside voices in our heads. As he begins his training in A New Hope, Luke argues that he can’t see what he’s doing with his eyes covered while Han Solo sits back and makes fun of all the Jedi “mumbo jumbo.” But once Luke has let go and trusted himself, he is able to achieve just a little bit of mastery over the light saber. Obi Wan reminds him, “You see, you can do it.”
There is a scene in The Empire Strikes Back, in which Luke has a vision of himself in the mask of Darth Vader to reveal his own face. Yoda, in all his wisdom, observes that the only person in Luke’s way is Luke. The light and dark sides of the Force are simply within us. When we are faced with what feels like an impossible task, the only thing stopping us from succeeding is our own darkness. And ultimately, this choice, our belief, is up to us. To Do or Do Not. Because there is no Try.