Do or do not. There is no try.

Posted on by under Thoughts

Some worthy commentators say that failure is an essential part of life and that we should welcome the experience, learn from it and then, after umpteen cycles, finally succeed.

They often cite the case of babies learning to walk and point out that the poor little blighters fall down many times before they eventually learn to toddle away to live in a squat in Manchester with that creepy bloke from number 46.

Yeah, I kind of see where they are coming from, but wouldn’t it be much better if we showed instructional DVDs to babies about how to walk? Whilst they are watching these we should put them through an intense course of physiotherapy to strengthen those flabby little muscles. And why not consider bringing socially adept toddlers in to give the babies motivational talks. All this before the little mites attempt one single step.

I think that you would then see the failure rate drop right through the floor (instead of the babies). Who’s with me?!

68 thoughts on “Do or do not. There is no try.”

  2. Thank you Master Yoda.
    Excuses for failure begin with “try.” Indeed, it’s all in the expectation of success.

    Now… instructional videos for babies, yes. You’re surely onto something. We might just all sit on our asses and learn to be elite gymnasts by watching the Olympics next time they roll around. Much brilliance.

    No need for all that inconvenient life experience anymore. More you tube!

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    • You’re welcome. Em. 🙂
      Actually, when you say that ‘we might just all sit on our asses and learn to be elite gymnasts’ there is a grain of truth there. Scientists have discovered that just imagining exercising can make you stronger, tone your muscles, and delay or stop muscle atrophy. This is one article that reports on the phenomena: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2887151/Scientists-discover-just-IMAGINING-exercising-make-stronger-tone-muscles-delay-stop-muscle-atrophy.html
      I wouldn’t advocate it as a replacement for real live experience though, some things are just better done in reality. 🙂
      On a tangential note, I was wondering if you could help me with something that’s been on my mind, and I’ll ask it whilst sticking to the theme of my post. Consider this hypothetical scenario: Master Yoda (M) instructs a student (s) to do something, and then outlines a ‘penalty’ for failure to do this thing. If this penalty was something that s finds to be very pleasurable, then would s follow M’s instructions, or would s deliberately not do the thing in anticipation of the penalty that M told s that he would enact on her?
      Kindness – Robert.

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      • If Master Yoda designed punishments that were in fact rewards, then I would think he was 1. not serious about the instructions being followed, 2. trying to reinforce bratty behavior, 3. misunderstanding the entire point of instructions and penalties being set in the first place, or all of the above.

        Given those above assumptions, Master Yoda would not be my Master, because I need to know that my partner takes things seriously and it isn’t just role play. But to answer your question, it depends whether this is how he is consistently I think, whether it’s be inclined to break the instruction.

        If he usually set very difficult and unpleasant punishments, and then threw this yummy punishment in out of the blue, I would probably follow the instruction, because likely this is a backfire waiting to happen.

        But if this is just the level of play that was normal for him and for whatever reason I was playing with him and he says “do not eat that advice of delicious chocolate cake, because I’d you do I’m going to make you cum so hard your teeth will rattle,” then I’m SO eating the cake.

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  4. Smiling here 🙂
    I am with you and the walking babies. Also, would like to add from experience that they not only learn fast, they also love to run right away. Including running into everything.. sigh.. spending so much time teaching them how to work, to all of the sudden wish they could go back to crawling. 🙂

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  6. Babies will learn how to walk with no instructions or videos. They have been doing it for a very, very long time. They learn to talk as well and that’s a very complicated thing to learn. I say let babies be babies and don’t muck about with how they do things. I think they know what they’re doing after all. LOL I speak from personal experience of being a Mom and watching each of my five children learn to walk and talk and oh so many things. The way babies learn things is totally amazing.

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    • Actually, I’m inclined to agree with you, Orpha, despite some reservations about allowing them to fall down so much. Should we take that concept further and close down all the schools? Maybe we shouldn’t muck about with how children want to do things.
      My tongue is in my cheek, but not too far. I’m playing devil’s advocate, but not too much. I’m joking, but with an edge of curiosity as to how we would all fare without the rigidity of the current education system.
      I trust you’ll let me know your thoughts, Orpha. 🙂

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      • Talking and walking are things that human beings know how to learn by themselves. However, there are things that babies must be taught… very important things. When they are into the learning to walk stage they are mobile and must be watched carefully. I suppose that’s why we put them in cages to sleep. What, you never thought of a baby crib as a cage? Look at the thing… it has bars. When my kids were young we had natural gas space heaters that could easily burn a small child. I taught them early on about HOT! I would take a little hand, hold it close enough for them to really feel the heat but not be burned and tell them HOT! They learned that quickly. My husband and I taught them about streets and cars and showed them about stopping and looking both ways before crossing a street. In the past, they needed to be taught different things. There is a little oops in my first post… I only had three children not five.

        Now about our educational system… I’m not entirely pleased with much of that but I do know that kids have to learn to read and write. They need to learn about numbers and how they work. They need to learn how to tell time… and well, a lot of things. They sure as hell need to learn how to spell. GAH! Like it or not, kids need to be educated. But that being said, we are all different and learn in different ways. Some people learn quickly and need to be able to move forward at their own pace. On the other end of the spectrum, there are the slow children who don’t pick up knowledge as quickly. They also need to learn at their own pace. The problem with schools is that the brilliant children are bored to tears and the slow ones can’t keep up. I don’t have the answers but I do know that teaching everyone at the same pace just doesn’t work well. We are all different and we all learn in our own ways. Our educational system doesn’t deal well with this. And the fact is that many of them slide through the whole educational process without learning the things that they really need to know.

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        • I enjoyed school because I adore learning. If only I had realised this at the time and had put more effort into it. But then again, perhaps my brain was not as capable back then. I certainly feel cleverer now than I ever did. Is that a weird thing to say?Maybe. One thing I would have preferred to learn about, instead of trig, is how to get with people. Oh, that just came out without me thinking. I meant to say something totally different, but that slipped out instead. But still – it’s true. Although we had plenty of practicals on getting on with others, we had little in the way of theory. Perhaps even a basic set of rules would have been good. As it was, we were just let loose on each other. Imagine several tigers in a cot/cage with your small child.
          Yeah – there’s a lot to what you say, Orpha. You do know that much of what I post is done so with my tongue in my cheek, right? 😀

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  9. Now about the quote… “Do or do not. There is no try.” That was one of my favorite quotes from Starwars. Try has the element of failure built into it. I also loved when Luke said, “I don’t believe it!” when Yoda levitated the ship from the bog. Yoda’s reply was “That is why you failed.”

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  10. YAWN!!! That’s how my day is going. My Granddaughter and her boyfriend found themselves becoming homeless and needed a place to be. I can’t just let my Granddaughter be homeless. After all, family should take care of each other. They are both employed at good wages so money wasn’t the problem. I guess the place where they were staying wanted them out. That’s as far as I will go with family business. LOL Anyway, they are flagmen (persons? people?) for some road construction and last night they were on the night shift. They left the house at 6:00 PM and dragged themselves home at 6:00 AM. That wouldn’t have been a problem except that the dog segment of my family reacted with barking. The two human members, who had just gotten back from work, apologized for waking me up. Heck, they didn’t wake me up. It was a Pomeranian, a Chiweenie and one dog who arrived with the Granddaughter and Boyfriend. I tried for over an hour to go back to sleep and then gave it up and got up.
    I adore my Granddaughter and the boyfriend seems to be very nice. The new dog arrival has learned that I am the alpha here in my house and acts accordingly. She is a loving soul and we bonded quickly. My new “room mates” haven’t eaten my food… they brought their own and run to the local Walmart to get things they need. They told me firmly that they would pay rent and I readily agreed to that. It’s better for their self-esteem and my finances are rather slim. Aside from the fact that I’m sleepy, I’m doing just fine. Sleepy can be fixed with a nap later on.

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    • Orpha, it sounds like you have quite a handful there. I’m reading Pollyanna at the moment and I can see shades of Aunt Polly in you (I hope you don’t take that the wrong way) in the way that you are doing your duty. Except that you already seem to know how to play the Glad Game very well. 🙂
      Have you considered making a soap opera out of your life? I’m pretty sure it would be a popular one. 😉

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  11. I’m not Pollyanna, really. I really do like the dog but then I’m a dog person. I already loved the Granddaughter and we get along well. The Boyfriend and I hit it off right away. I wasn’t at all sure how he would be but he’s nice and fun to talk to. Sometimes it’s nice to have someone to talk to who can talk back in human speak.
    No, I’ve never considered making my life into a soap opera as I don’t much like those at all. I always say, “Why should I watch that soap opera? I can see stuff like that all around me.” My Mom was addicted to them. YAWN!! And the people I saw at Walmart would be even juicier for a soap opera. I could call it “Walmart Tales.” I met some really weird people there. I also met some very nice people as well.

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    • You see! You could blow the whole soap opera genre right out of the water, Orpha with your tales of weirdness and niceness at Walmart.
      ‘Walmart Tales’ sounds like an excellent idea. And just think of the publicity you would get as they sue your ass off! Oh, but such fun you would have. 🙂
      And yes, you’re not Pollyanna at all, it’s just that I am reading the book and seeing people through the lens of the ideas there. If I were reading Goldfinger, you would James Bond – for sure! 😉
      Kindness – Robert.

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  12. I couldn’t be James Bond. He’s a guy and I’m surely not! I’ve read Pollyanna myself and have seen a movie that was made from the book. I’ve read a few James Bond stories and, of course, watched several of the movies. Right now I am reading one of the E. E. Smith books. I haven’t read those in a long time.

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    • That’s exactly what I mean. My impressions on reading a book are so strong that they can make a woman into a man!
      It’s strange that you are reading E ‘Doc’ Smith because I’ve just finished reading the entire Lensman series, one after the other. Or perhaps I told you that already. 🙂 Which of his books are you reading?

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