Luke: All right, I’ll give it a try.
Yoda: No. Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try.
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
I never try anything, I just do it. – Varla, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)
Yoda, as was illustrated in Episodes I-III, was a Jedi Badass. Just because he’s a mostly-retired, nine hundred year-old dude doesn’t mean he’s necessarily mellowed out. Okay, sure, he didn’t tell that whiny farm kid to get the hell of his lawn and summarily Force-pwn him halfway across the swamp for interrupting Jeopardy!, but think about this exchange from his perspective — this guy has come to you for advice and training, and doesn’t think they can cut it.
What are you gonna do, coddle him? No. You know he’s got the lobes for it (to mix in another fandom), so you’re gonna push him to give the effort.[1] Luke could take some life lessons from Varla (fashion advice, too, maybe), or, heck even a Nike ad.
Yes, Luke, you have to look at the spaceship that has burned, fallen over, and then sunken into the swamp and JUST DO IT.
There wouldn’t be so many exhortations to putting the effort into achievement if there wasn’t something to it. We aren’t the first ones to draw this parallel; the guys at Testosterone Nation look, er, up to the Little Green Man for inspiration, too. Trying to do something isn’t the same as doing it. Working towards doing something isn’t the same as trying.
Let’s stop praying for someone to save us and start saving ourselves.
Let’s stop this and start over.
Let’s go out – let’s keep going. – KMFDM, “Dogma“ (NSFW lyrics in that link)
[1] I say, “Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know?” And he says, “Oh, uh, there won’t be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.” So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice. – Carl Spackler
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