Do or Do Not - There is No Try

How empowering are the words that you say to yourself? Do you realise which words could be doing you more harm than good? Do the words that you say to yourself give you the leadership drive to be proactive and take action or do they unknowingly hold you back?

Recently I have been doubly reminded of the importance of empowering words. I've just re-surfaced from running a 7 day intensive leadership development programme in Bali where, at one point, we considered the influence of words to empower us and following on from this hot topic, my work colleague happened to send me an email with one little disempowering word in it. This little 3 letter, seemingly harmless word was 'try'.  I know my colleague wanted to be modest so he used the word 'try'. His words were "Thanks for believing in me. Will definitely try."  Having recently discussed the disempowering effect of this word, it alerted me like a siren ringing loudly. In an instant, I was able to quickly empower my colleague by sharing with him the famous Star Wars quote by Yoda:- "Do or do not, there is no try."

"Ok let's do then!" came back the empowering response from my colleague.

Although my colleague is too young to remember Star Wars, he was most impressed with the excerpt I shared with him from the film and now wants to share with students at the universities in Singapore.  It makes me feel good when I can share classics with younger generations and say "I went to see this at the cinema when it first was released!"




What a difference a word can make and it's this difference that can make all the difference.  For example, if you say "I'll try to do my best", how likely will you do it? The word 'try' gives your brain the message that you don't have to do it if you don't want to, or that you may not be able to, so don't do your best.  Whereas if you say "I'll do my best", it's a much more assertive and empowering statement. You've given your brain the message that you have the capability and you've given yourself permission to make it happen.

It's good to be aware of what we say to ourselves. Notice the difference it makes for you by replacing 'try' with 'will' or 'will not', 'do or do not'. It's so simple and yet so effective.

Janet