Do Try

Demonstrating the difference between “trying” and “doing”

Please try to pick up the pen lying on the table there next to you.

(Most clients will pick it up).

No, I didn’t say to pick up the pen. I said to try to pick up the pen. Please, again, try to pick up the pen.

(At this point, clients typically either pick up the pen again or move their hand close to it, hovering over it, as if their hand were paralysed.)

No, I didn’t say move your hand toward the pen and then stop. I said try to pick up the pen. Can you do it, or is it simply the case that you either choose to pick up the pen or choose not to? What if trying to ask our boss for that raise we’ve talked about is like trying to pick up the pen?


No! Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try. [Yoda]