Just sharing some vital lessons from a segment of the Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back:

[You can watch the movie-clip capturing the scenario here: https://youtu.be/4RhmHfh7ZI8]

A little bit of background:

While visiting the Dragonah Planet to seek out the Jedi Master Yoda, Luke Skywalker and his robot drone R2D2, unexpectedly crashlanded with their X-Wing fighter in the swamp.

Luke coudn't initiate action in using the power of the Force to lift the fighter out of the swamp, despite urging by Master Yoda.

Here's the dailogue:

LUKE:

"Oh, no. We'll never get it out now."

(Yoda stamps his foot in irritation.)

YODA:

"So certain are you. Always with you it cannot be done. Hear you nothing that I say?"

(Luke looks uncertainly out at the ship.)

LUKE:

"Master, moving stones around is one thing. This is totally different."

YODA:

"No! No different! Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned."

LUKE:

(focusing, quietly)

"All right, I'll give it a try."

YODA:

"No! Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try."

(Luke closes his eyes and concentrates on thinking the ship out. Slowly, the X-wing's nose begins to rise above the water. It hovers for a moment and then slides back, disappearing once again.)

LUKE:

(panting heavily}

"I can't. It's too big."

YODA:

"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hm? Mmmm."

(Luke shakes his head.)

YODA (CONT’D):

"And well you should not. For my ally in the Force. And a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we..."

(Yoda pinches Luke's shoulder{

"... not this crude matter."

(a sweeping gesture)

"You must feel the Force around you."

(gesturing)

"Here, between you... me... the tree... the rock... everywhere! Yes, even between this land and that ship!"

LUKE:

(discouraged)

"You want the impossible."

(Quietly Yoda turns toward the X-wing fighter. With his eyes closed and his head bowed, he raises his arm and points at the ship. Soon, the fighter rises above the water and moves forward as R2D2 beeps in terror and scoots away. The entire X-wing moves majestically, surely, toward the shore. Yoda stands on a tree root and guides the fighter carefully down toward the beach.

Luke stares in astonishment as the fighter settles down onto the shore. He walks toward Master Yoda.)

LUKE (CONT’D):

"I don't... I don't believe it."

YODA:

"That is why you fail."

(Luke shakes his head, bewildered.)

Luke was evidently unsure of him, judging from his seemingly negative language impressions.

Interestingly, Tony Robbins calls this phenomenon, Transformational Vocabulary (Power of Words).

In a nut shell, the habitual words you use determine your emotional state and behaviour.

Using positve language to change how you feel about certain situations can change how you respond to life's difficulties.

For example, instead of saying "I'll try..." or "I hope to...", replace it with, "I plan to..."!

Luke gave up easily, and apparently could not believe in his own capability.

As Master Yoda put it, "That's why you fail", in rebuttal!

Drawing intellectual cues from the late Bob Proctor:

"To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all. But to believe in the unseen is both a triumph and a blessing.

"Faith and fear both demand you believe in something you cannot see. You choose."

“Faith is the ability to see the invisible and believe in the incredible and that is what enables believers to receive what the masses think is impossible.”

So, to sum up:

In order to be able to initiate action to do something worthwhile in your life, you need be mindful of what you are telling yourself, and need to believe in yourself as well as your ability to execute your intended action.

CREATIVITY & STRUCTURE

It is quite refreshing for me to read that "creativity is enhanced when it is organised, systematic and based on highly structured processes", which serves as an interesting counterpoint to "the common belief that lack of structure and randomness enhances creative output".

Here's the link to the original article by management consultant Kal Bishop. I certainly like his exemplar from George Lucas' Star War movies.

Somehow, the author's energising ideas remind me of two great works:

1) 'The Houdini Solution: Putting Creativity & Innovation to Work by Thinking Inside the Box', by Ernie Schenck [principal premise: more focused & powerful ideas come from accepting the constraints instead of being controlled by them];

2) 'Get Back in the Box: How being Great at What You Do is Great for Business', by Douglas Ruchkoff [principal premise: the secret of success lies inside the box, by looking at your core competencies, work environments & customer landscapes];

Actually, there is a third book - just came in from Amazon - which I have yet to read.

It's 'Creativity Unlimited: Thinking Inside the Box for Business Innovation', by Prof. Micael Dahlen. I have bought it because of it's catchy structure around three key steps:

- Expanding the box: so that the pieces of the puzzle in it can move around more freely;
- Filling the box: with even more knowledge, and how to get these new pieces of the puzzle to connect with the existing ones;
- Shaking the box: so that the pieces fall into new places and form new patterns;

Please stay tuned!