Awaken the Force within you #MondayMorningWakeUpCall

1. “Try not. Do—or do not. There is no try.”

Yoda to Luke in response to Luke’s half-hearted reaction to levitate his Star Fighter plane by using the Force.

After all, if you are gonna try, then give it your best shot, else do not. Why waste your time and energy otherwise?

2.   “Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.”

Yoda to Anakin when Anakin comes to Yoda for advice about the premonitions he is having about losing Padme Amadila cos as Yoda also says, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.”

3.  “[Luke:] I can’t believe it. [Yoda:] That is why you fail.”

Yoda to Luke when Luke couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw Yoda lift the massive fighter plane by using just the Force (while all the while Luke was struggling to lift a rock).

Believe you must!

4. “You will know (the good from the bad) when you are calm, at peace. Passive.”

Yoda’s response to Luke during his training when Luke asks how he will know the good side from the bad side. ‘Passive’ however methinks should not be misconstrued as ‘inert’ or ‘inactive’ but rather as ‘actively passive’ or ‘consciously passive’

5.  “Patience you must have my young padawan”

Yoda tells an impatient Luke at the start of his training when like all one minds one wants to leap frog to the glory without the hard work.

6. “Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is.”

When Obi-Wan comes to Yoda to seek help to find what he thinks is an impossible puzzle to solve, Yoda puts forth the puzzle to a group of young children who he is training to become Jedi knights. One of the young ones comes up with an answer which was the most obvious but was uncharacteristically overlooked.

Yoda indirectly reminds Obi-Wan (and us) to not lose the beauty of simplistic and innocent thinking, to continually unlearn what we learn.

7. “You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.”

Obi-Wan tells Luke when Luke finds it hard to believe that Darth Vader was earlier Anakin Skywalker and now they are not the same person, despite occupying the same body.

Moral: Wear glares that don’t colour your judgement.

8. “Keep your concentration here and now where it belongs.”

Qui-Gon dispersing pearls of Jedi to his apprentice when Obi-Wan expresses anxieties about the future. Obi-Wan goes on to retort that “Master Yoda says I should be mindful of the future” but Qui-Gon replies saying “But not at the expense of the moment.”

Plan the future, but stay in the present moment.

9. “Your eyes can deceive you, don’t trust them”

Obi-Wan while training Luke in the Force, aboard the Millenium Falcon. Instead of the senses, Obi-Wan tells Luke later to “Trust your feelings, Luke.” A philosophy oft repeated throughout the saga in different forms by different Jedi Knights including Master Yoda instructing Obi-Wan to “Use your feelings, you must” and Shmi Skywalker asking young Anakin “What does your heart tell you?” when he is torn between staying with his mom or leaving to train as a Jedi.

These are some of my favourite Jedi mind tricks, tricks that could probably transgress from the make-believe world of the galaxy far far away and be used in the not so make-believe world of drama and deadlines.

But for the tricks to overpower the dark side, believe in the Force you must!

What are some of your Yoda favourite philosophies that you can use in life?