Do or Do Not, There is no Try- The Meaning

A few years ago I was having an exchange on my long-deleted Twitter with this girl when I quoted Yoda to her, and she proceeded to tell me that she always thought that quote was “bullshit.” That seems to be a very prevalent perspective among many Star Wars fans, particularly those who grew up with the Prequels and view Yoda as fallible, and therefore wrong. But what did Yoda truly intend to teach Luke when he said “there is no try?” This is a question I’ve long sought an answer to, and only recently have I found it.

First, context. Having convinced Yoda to train him, Luke is first tasked with raising his sunken X-Wing out of the depths of the swampy waters of Dagobah. Luke sees this mammoth task in front of him, and naturally grows nervous. Earlier in the movie it took Luke a herculean effort to lift his own lightsaber out of the snow using the Force; now he was being asked to lift a heavy space ship. Luke responds he’ll try, to which Yoda offers the now immortal line:

Do or do not, there is no try.

Luke attempts to lift the X-Wing out of the waters, but he fails and gives up. “It’s impossible,” he says. Wordlessly, Yoda rebuffs him by easily lifting the ship out of the water. “I don’t believe it,” says Luke, awed. “That,” says Yoda. “Is why you fail.”

What’s being said here, what’s being shown? We’re being shown Luke making what appears to be a solid effort at lifting his own X-Wing, which is understandably a difficult feat for him. After all, we saw how limited his skills were earlier in the movie; how can we or ANYONE expect him to lift an X-Wing with so little training? And then Yoda does it, visibly putting in far less effort than Luke, and succeeding.

Luke failed, there’s no question about that. But a question rises: why did Yoda tell him to lift the X-Wing himself? Why didn’t Yoda recognize how limited his student’s capabilities were? Simply put: he did, and he recognized that Luke could lift that X-Wing out of the water. It was LUKE who thought he couldn’t.

An important lesson that children need to learn is how to deal with failure. We’ve set up a school system, and even an economic system, that punishes failure severely. Not just that, but we live our lives thinking we only get ONE shot at everything: one chance to do this test, one shot to take this grade, one shot at true love, and so on. If we fail a test then EVERYTHING is lost: your GPA drops so there goes your college application, which then jeopardizes your future career, which condemns you to an unfulfilled life of mediocrity.

Thus we grow up with one of two very different mindsets: either we cannot afford to fail, or our failure is inevitable so don’t bother. Neither mindset is particularly healthy; the former mindset imposes unneeded pressure on you to succeed, and the latter stagnates you and keeps you from growing. What we need is a mindset of accepting, and learning from, failure.

This brings us back to Luke. He saw his failure at lifting the X-Wing as proof of the limits of his abilities, in spite of the fact that he only made one attempt. Because of this, he stopped trying and flat out told Yoda it was impossible to lift that X-Wing. He tried, he failed, and he gave up.

That was his mistake: giving up. Luke didn’t bother asking Yoda for advice on how he could lift the X-Wing off the swamp, or ask his teacher what he did wrong. Luke tried ONCE, then gave up and decided it was impossible.

This is something I’ve seen and experienced far too much; hell, I’m guilty of it, too. We make ONE attempt, we fail, then we give up. This isn’t right.

A thought came to me as I was writing this essay: what does it REALLY mean to try? As I pondered the meaning of the word, I came to a startling revelation: to try is to do without knowing the outcome. We can’t try without doing, but we can do without trying. Of course the dictionary doesn’t see it that way, defining try as “to make an attempt; to put effort into an action.” I do not intend to redefine words, but rather, to bring to light an unofficial meaning behind the word try.

There is a cultural-linguistic notion in using “try” that shows the speaker is somewhat unsure of the outcome of their actions. We use “try” because we acknowledge we might not succeed; there’s always a chance of failure either due to our own oversights or due to circumstances beyond our control.

This then leads credence to the idea that Yoda is wrong and that “there is no try” truly is, as my acquaintance back then so eloquently said, “complete bullshit.” But that’s wrong, because the quote itself is incomplete. The quote is a part of a much, MUCH grander lesson that Yoda is trying to impart on Luke.

A more forgotten quote of Yoda that he says to Luke is “you must unlearn what you have learned.” This is actually a pretty common lesson in Martial Arts, given to new students who wish to learn how to break boards with their hands, run on walls, and take on five ninjas at once while doing Bruce Lee noises. Basically it means to leave one’s preconceptions at the door, and start over from the beginning.

Luke’s problem was that he had a very basic preconception regarding his X-Wing: it was bigger and heavier than a rock, therefore it required greater amount of power to lift. Luke also had the preconception that he was lacking in the power needed to lift the X-Wing, ergo it was literally “impossible” for him to lift it. Yoda’s lesson was for Luke to forget the physical differences between the rock and the X-Wing, and to see them as simply objects one can lift with the Force.

When Yoda responded “that is why you fail” when Luke expressed shock and disbelief, what he was really communicating was “you limit yourself with your preconceptions. You think you know the limits of your abilities, so when something seems beyond them, you think you’ll fail. This then makes failure inevitable.”

This then brings a new layer to the meaning of “there is no try:” There really ISN’T a “try,” it’s all about you using all your skills and abilities to overcome obstacles and achieve objectives. You put in the work, and you either succeed or you don’t; and if you don’t, you figure out why and how you can avoid making the same mistakes again. But if you DO have the skills, then you either do it or you don’t. But never, ever doubt or second guess yourself, because THAT will guarantee your failure.

A highly applicable life lesson, from a kid’s movie about space wizards with laser swords. If only movies for adults could carry such wonderful lessons, perhaps the world would be a little better…