Do…or do not.  There is no try.
by:  Joyce Moseley Pierce

I love quotes.  I will sometimes buy a greeting card and frame it just because I like what it says. 

In February I went to Walt Disney World with my family.   While browsing through the Star Wars gift shop, I only found one thing I wanted to take home with me.  It was a decal of Yoda with the quote, “Do…or do not.  There is no try.”   Like many of the lines in the Star Wars movies, it has layers of meaning.

It doesn’t matter what challenges you face.  Starting a family.  Building a business.  Trying to lose weight.  Giving up old habits.  Making more money.  The first thing you have to do is decide to succeed. 

In training my own team, I am often asked, “Do you really think I can do this?”  My answer is, “Absolutely.  If you believe you can.”

That’s where it all starts.  Believing in yourself.  If you’re convinced that you can’t do something, then it is very likely that you won’t.  You have to believe it to achieve it.  You can spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars on programs and coaching to help you improve, but they won’t help at all if you don’t believe in yourself.

It’s important to set long term goals and then break them down into short term goals.  If you want to have $5,000 by December 31, 2006, what are you going to do to achieve that?  Will you have to earn an extra $650 per month from now until the end of the year, or do you have something you can sell?   It’s easy enough to have the desire to acquire the extra cash, but how will you actually do it? 

As you go along and see that your short-term goals aren’t being achieved, maybe it’s time to step back and reassess your strategy.  Maybe you’re spinning your wheels in the wrong direction.  Do some brainstorming and see if other ideas become available to you.    Whatever you do, Winston Churchill says, “Never, never, never, never give up.”   So what if you made mistakes in the past?  Today is a brand new day.

Once you reach the first plateau, keep pushing ahead.  Don’t ever think that once you’ve reached your goal you can sit back and relax.  Keep working or you risk losing everything you’ve worked for.  Winston Churchill says,   “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” 

One of my favorite times at Disney World was touring a museum and viewing a film about Mr. Disney.  Now that was a man with vision.  He took a simple drawing of a household rodent and turned it into an empire.  At one point he was on the verge of bankruptcy, but he pushed ahead.  He visualized a place where old and young alike could be young at heart.   He is the epitome of someone living his dream, and in his words, “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”  

Joyce Moseley Pierce is the owner of Emerson Publications and publishes the Family First Newsletter each week.  She's a contributing author to the Chicken Soup for the Latter-day Saint Soul. . Visit her website for more information on how to promote family unity. www.emersonpublications.com   Copyright 2005.