DO OR DO NOT, THERE IS NO TRY

Last evening I was speaking at an International Toastmasters competition. It was a great experience and I had a lot of fun. I won the competition for my area and will now advance to the next competition.

The topic of my speech was, “THE POWER OF THE MIND”. As I was putting my thoughts together for the speech I knew I wanted to make a post to give all of you the same information.

The title of this post is, DO OR DO NOT, THERE IS NO TRY”, I don’t know how many of you know where this line comes from but it was said by Yoda to Luke in the movie Star Wars.

I based my speech around this quote because it captures the intensity of the power of the mind. The mind is a powerful tool, and every great event and invention started with an idea in someone’s mind.

I bet you didn’t know that on May 6, 1954 the human race went through an evolutionary jump. On that day humans became stronger, bigger, and faster. How do I know this, simple, on May 6, 1954 Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile barrier. Over the next month his record was broken and he regained the record. No one in history has ever run a 4 minute mile before and in one month it was done at least 3 times. That is why I am sure that humans took an evolutionary jump that month!

I can prove it, before Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile barrier doctors said that it couldn’t be done. They said that the heart would literally explode in the chest because it couldn’t beat fast enough to supply the amount of blood that would be needed by the muscles. The doctors said that our lungs would collapse because the oxygen needed would have humans breathing so hard the lungs couldn’t keep up. Doctors said that running a 4 minute mile would kill anyone who tried it.

Someone forgot to tell Roger! He had run miles in 4 minutes and 3 seconds and he didn’t believe that cutting 3 seconds off his time would kill him. He was quoted as saying that he just felt too good to die over 3 seconds!

So here is the question, did the human race really get bigger, faster, and stronger on May 6, 1954? NO! What happened is the real barrier that was broken was the mental barrier not the 4 minute barrier.

The mind doesn’t work on a rheostat, it works on a switch. For mental barriers to be broken there has got to be 100% belief and commitment. Just like Yoda told Luke, DO OR DO NOT, THERE IS NO TRY! 100% or nothing. If you leave even the smallest seed of doubt it will grow to a vine that is as strong as a steel cable and keep you from succeeding.

There is another saying that I shared with the judges and Toastmasters last night, “What the mind can conceive, the body can achieve”. What the mind believes the body achieves.

Believe in yourself, believe in what you do, believe in what you CAN do and you will achieve the success you deserve.

Lorin