Hands up Star Wars generation...since Yoda said those infamous words..."Do or do not. There is no try!!" how many times have you quoted him? If like me you have kids, the answer may be lots!!! As there are 3 teenagers in my house, I found myself quoting him on a very regular basis...until recently.
My eldest daughter's hobby is figure skating. She's been doing this for a while now and has got into a routine of learning. She tries, over and over again until she succeeds. Sometimes this takes a matter of minutes, sometimes it's days or weeks. Over and over again she will try until she succeeds. To her, try means attempt; have a go at...until you can do it. As she's the most dedicated person I know for her there is no in between, there is no such thing as giving up, failure is not an option...she keeps trying, tweaking her process and trying again. Until she gets the result she wants.
Watching her one evening, practicing, I began to think about Yoda's phrase..."there is no try..." and I started to wonder exactly what it meant to me, and then I reallised...trying is good. Trying means action. Trying means having a go at, trying means to attempt. It's actually the word 'tried' that I have a problem with as this usually means 'I've since given up!'.
In the world of learning, trying , practicing or rehearsing a new skill is absolutely essential. It's the only way we can actually learn and therefore use a new skill with confidence...and this should always be encouraged. Yes, sometimes we fail and things don't work out the way we planned...so we adapt, we teak, we try something new until we get the result we're after.
So, to go back to our friend Yoda...There is indeed do or do not, but to succeed you have to keep trying.
One Response
“Do or do not. There is no try!!”
Completely agree. I also think it’s okay to try and work out that actually this isn’t working. It’s something that I’ve learnt in my job that sometimes the only way to know what the best marketing ploy is is to try it. It might not work but you learn some lessons and that learning is the most valuable thing.