It's not a comfortable question, is it? There are so many times in life that, just about when we think we're doing everything we can, we realize we had 10% more in reserve. Sometimes, it takes an outside push, like a new job or the birth of a child. Sometimes, we manage to break through our own misperceptions with sheer, brute force.
It's not easy.
I don't think that effort is all it takes to succeed in life. If you think, for example, that millions of children live in poverty worldwide because they're not trying hard enough to find a job, then you're an idiot. I'm talking about the rest of us – those of us with means and opportunity who, for whatever reason, are afraid to do what it takes. Even for us, it's not always easy.
Do or do not.
I've been thinking about this question for years, ever since my pre-teen obsession with "The Empire Strikes Back" and those immortal words of Jedi Master Yoda:
Do or do not. There is no try.
I've heard that George Lucas is incredibly annoyed when people try to read too much into Yoda's dialogue. I'm incredibly annoyed that I paid $30 to see the prequels in the theater (not counting popcorn), so I guess we're even. I have no idea what he meant for Yoda to mean, but I'll take my life lessons where I can get them, even if they're two feet tall and green.
Yoda is mean.
To be completely honest, I've always found Luke Skywalker to be a bit annoying. I mean, sure, he blew up the Death Star, but he had the Force on his side and he used to bullseye wamp rats in his T-16 back home, so was it really that big of a deal?
Still, you can't help but feel for Luke when Yoda tells him to just try harder. The guy is trying to lift an entire spaceship with his mind – maybe Yoda could cut him a little slack.
The thing is, Yoda knew Luke could do it. Sometimes, there are things we really do have control over. Let's say you know you need to give up that Grande Latte every morning. Is it tough? Maybe, but it's completely in your control. No one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to walk into that Starbucks – you can do it or not do it. Trying isn't enough, and you know it.
You can see it.
When someone really breaks through and goes from trying to doing, it's almost palpable. I saw an example of that just yesterday.
My daughter is learning to crawl. I use the term loosely – I can only describe what she does as a combination of yoga and epilepsy. She moves forward, but it's acrobatic, violent, and a little alarming.
She's also fascinated by our cat (I'll tie this all together soon, I promise). She doesn't really know what a cat is, but it's clear that, in her limited world of infant perception, the cat is the single most fascinating creature that has ever existed.
Yesterday, the cat miscalculated – the door closed so my wife could take a call, and the cat was trapped. The baby saw her moment. Somehow, she put knee in front of knee, and she crawled halfway across the room. The cat narrowly escaped under the bed, but the struggle could only be described as epic.
Babies make amazing developmental leaps, but there was just something in my daughter's eyes. She wanted to move, and, in an instant, trying became doing.
Make it inevitable.
I saw an online video a while back by a motivational guru. To be honest, it felt a little bit like a pyramid scheme, but the speaker made a point that's stuck with me. It basically boiled down to this – What would make achieving success inevitable?
Let me repeat that in a slightly different way – What would you have to do to turn trying into doing? Think crazy here – not "I'd send out 1 more resume/week", but "I'd hunt down the CEO and keep him in my trunk until I got a job offer."
Ok, that's a little extreme, but you get the point. There's some course of action that, if you did it, would guarantee success. It may not be practical, but once you've got that in your head, think about the distance between what you're doing now and the extreme.
Is there a happy medium? If there is, that's the border between trying and doing.