“I don’t believe it.” -Luke Skywalker

“That is why you fail.” -Yoda

If you’ve been reading Lights, Camera, Wisdom for a while, you know I love Star Wars. In my opinion, The Empire Strikes Back, is the best of the bunch. In it, Han Solo and Princess Leia fall in love, (which made my 13-year-old romantic self swoon). More importantly, Luke Skywalker grows up. He learns how crucial it is to believe that what you want is possible. During this scene in the movie, Yoda and Luke Skywalker have come upon his sunken X-Wing fighter. It is stuck in the waters and muck of the swamp. Luke knows he will need to raise it from the waters somehow but has no idea how.

Yoda advises him to try it. He does, and he budges it for an instant. I’ve always loved how big Yoda’s eyes get while Luke goes for it. “There,” he thinks. “He has the vision. He’s going to do this!” And then Luke fails.

“I can’t,” he gasps. “It’s too big.”

“Size matters not,” the tiny Yoda responds. “Judge me by size do you?” He proceeds to raise the fighter out of the waters like he’s picking up a pebble out of a pond.

“I don’t believe it,” Luke stammers as his fighter now sits on the ground.

“That is why you fail,” Yoda says.

Luke can’t imagine a universe where it’s possible to use your mind (the Force) to achieve something so huge. And that’s why he fails. It’s not a failure to achieve. It’s a failure to imagine.

Believe it’s possible

By the way, I’m not talking about wanting to achieve something or knowing why you want to achieve it.  Sure, you should absolutely know why you’re trying to achieve the goal. In fact, your “why” should make you cry. Rather, I mean that you need to believe that what you want to do is possible. You have to imagine it and make it real in your mind before you ever achieve. Some would even say you have to imagine you’ve already done it before you start.

The power of your imagination makes most things possible. Like Yoda says to Luke Skywalker, he fails because he has no belief in the task being possible. First, and foremost, he must imagine his goal as something he can achieve. Without that, he will fail.

That applies to all of us. If you want to succeed, if you want to achieve your goal, you have to first believe it’s possible. You need to visualize it as if it already exists. No matter what it is, form it in your mind as if it’s already here. Then, you make your goal concrete. And you can formulate a plan. To quote The Little Prince, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

Conceive to Achieve

Some of us have trouble using our imaginations for such specific ends. Sure, we can daydream, but actually visualizing something to achieve an end, proves tougher. If you have trouble imagining things, here’s an easy exercise to help you start visualizing.

Sit down. Put your feet flat on the floor and your hands in your lap. Close your eyes. Breathe deeply for four full breaths. Now, imagine a movie screen behind your closed lids. Remember the last time you got to the movies early and the big screen sat blank and white in the front of the theater. In your mind’s eye, light the screen up so it’s bright white.

Now, on the screen, imagine an apple. Put it right in the center. Furthermore, flesh it out. What shape is it? Is it rounded or more oblong? What color is it? Does it have any bumps or bruises? Is there a stem? Make it as real on the screen as you can. Then, turn it around and look at the other side. Or, look at it from the top and bottom. In fact, imagine it’s so real that you can just pluck from the screen and hold it in your hands.

Practice

When you can do that with an apple, start on bigger and more complicated items and concepts. Practice doing this daily until you’re super good at it. Then, you’ll be able to do the same thing with anything you want to achieve. Just like the apple, if you can conceive it, you can achieve it. And that’s how the magic happens. With this basic skill, you can envision and eventually accomplish anything.

What do you want to achieve? If you need a little help to visualize it, comment below, and I’ll give you a visualization that will get you going.

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Additionally, if you want to be doing something so badly, you need to go start doing it. I talked about this in a previous entry from the TV show “Warehouse 13.”

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