Previous post
Star Wars meets Personal Development
The short answer: NO.
No matter how smart you think you are, how wise and experienced, how clever and educated, it is impossible to predict the outcomes of your decisions with one hundred percent certainty. Why?
Because we can’t see the future.
That seems obvious but you’d be surprised how many people actually operate (unconsciously) thinking they know exactly how things will turn out. The reality is they can’t know and therefore basing their decisions on best guess scenarios.
It’s arrogant and it’s foolhardy.
In Star Wars, the Sith love to speak in these kinds of absolutes. They call Jedi “predictable”. They are so assured and confident in their knowledge of how things will turn out.
But it never works out the way they foresee it, even for the most powerful among them.
So don’t be like the Sith.
In this case, be more like a combination of Ahsoka and Sabine. Give this week’s episode a listen and you’ll understand why.
[Preview clip: “We have at the very beginning of it the normal kind of good guy, bad guy dialogue. But eventually, eventually it’s going to come to blows. We know this, we know this with almost utmost certainty that there’s going to be an awesome fight scene, lightsabers are going to come out.
And in fact, in fact, I want to quote Balin right before he lights his saber, he says, How inevitable.“
[Show intro: “You’re listening to Path of the Jedi with your host, Ronnie Cruz.”]
All right, welcome to Path of the Jedi, the podcast where Star Wars meets Personal Development.
My name is Ronnie Cruz, your host for this uncertain adventure.
That’s right, Uncertain.
Why “uncertain”?
A handful of reasons.
The first being that my dogs are being particularly rascally right now, as recording this. They’re in the same room. I always record with the dogs in the same room. I don’t like to leave them unattended, but also… I like to live dangerously. [laughs]
And you know, there is a high level of uncertainty, how much dog noises and rascally things you’ll get in the recording of this episode. [another laugh]
But in all seriousness, I think we all live with a high level of uncertainty, especially in the last handful of years.
But I think in life in general, right?
It’s just part of the life experience.
As the saying goes, and I know this might sound very cliche but, “the only thing certain in life is change”, right?
And for me, it’s kind of been glaringly obvious throughout my life, the amount of uncertainty and change that has happened from a very young age. So, you know, from a very young age, I’ve learned to kind of just embrace it and accept that fact.
And that’s served me well. That’s really served me well.
Well, you know, I do work to influence the outcomes that I want in my life. I work to manifest and attract and create the experiences that I want in my life. However, it’s impossible to do that with 100% certainty, right?
We can’t predict what tomorrow will bring.
And so, again, as much as I work to do that, I also cultivate this kind of surrender to the uncertainty… because again, it is impossible. It is impossible to know what the next day will bring with 100% certainty.
So there’s that.
Now, of course, speaking of Star Wars, our heroes in Ahsoka Part Four are faced with a lot of uncertainty in this episode.
I think they’re faced with some very, very difficult decisions amidst all this uncertainty.
And I think the decisions that they’re faced with are difficult because of the uncertainty that they’re staring in the face, or that’s staring them in the face.
And so that’s what we’re going to talk about today.
We’re going to talk about uncertainty.
We’re going to talk about foresight.
These are the things that this particular episode, Ahsoka Part 4, Fallen Jedi, these are the principles, the ideas that this episode has inspired me to discuss today.
[Rey soundbite: “Classified, really? Me too. Big secret.”]
So to catch everybody up, in case you haven’t watched this… which you should… I should say this at the beginning of each episode… If you haven’t seen the episode that we’re discussing, it would behoove you to first watch that episode.
So today is going to be Ahsoka Part 4, Fallen Jedi.
In this episode, we are on the planet Seatos. Ahsoka and Sabine and Hu Yang have pursued the bad guys to this planet because the bad guys brought the map here.
Now, Baylan, Shin and Morgan have taken the map and brought it to some sort of shrine or holy place. And really, this shrine is more ancient technology than anything else. Baylan calls it witchcraft, but this shrine actually activates the map and shows them presumably where Thrawn is.
Now, because that’s presumably where Thrawn is, it’s also presumably where Ezra might be as well.
And so Ahsoka and Sabine are kind of faced with these conflicting goals now, conflicting decisions.
Do they go retrieve the map from the bad guys – which is going to be very difficult obviously – but do they go retrieve the map so that they can still work to find Ezra, or do they focus on foiling the bad guys’ plan because the bad guys’ plan is to find Thrawn and, you know, eventually let Thrawn be the heir to the Empire.
Now, Ahsoka’s primary directive, of course, is still to prevent another war. And she says it pretty much outright. And not that Sabine doesn’t want that as well, but she also doesn’t want to lose a chance at finding Ezra, right? [She] doesn’t want to lose perhaps the only chance that they might have with that map to find Ezra.
So it’s kind of between a rock and a hard place in this episode.
And this is why there’s a lot of uncertainty, because we have no idea which way this thing is going to go.
[Rey soundbite: “That’s just Tito. Wants you for parts.”]
Let’s start our discussion by fast forwarding to about the 19 minute mark. And by the way, I am going to, I think, start doing this. Start giving you time markers, so that it makes it easier to reference the particular scenes that we’re discussing.
But at about the 19 minute mark is when Ahsoka finally meets Baylan face to face. She finally confronts him. Now, we have at the very beginning of it, you know, the normal kind of good guy, bad guy dialogue.
But eventually, eventually it’s going to come to blows. We know this. We know this with almost utmost certainty that there’s going to be an awesome fight scene. Lightsabers are going to come out.
And in fact, in fact, I want to quote Baylan. Right before he lights his saber, he says, “How inevitable.”
How arrogant, right? How arrogant of Baylan and how very Sith, as a matter of fact.
We know this of the Sith that they love to position themselves and present themselves as if they know exactly what’s going to happen. They position themselves as if they can predict with utmost certainty how you’re going to behave or what the Jedi are going to do.
And they’ll say it as much, right? They’ll say the Jedi are so predictable. They say it all the freaking time.
But what we often see is that this arrogant confidence is really the Sith’s biggest, or one of their biggest flaws.
I mean, I know it’s written that way. But it rarely ever turns out the way they say it’s going to turn out, the way they’re so confident that they’re all, you know, they’re going to win and things are going to turn out the way they’ve foreseen it.
And yes, it seems that Baylan does have some sort of foresight powers. He’s able to read things and, you know, make these kind of predictions. I mean, he reads Sabine at the end of this episode very, very well.
But, you know, I think that confident arrogance in his assuredness that he knows exactly what’s going to happen is, again, one of the biggest flaws of the Sith and of Balin himself.
To bring things into some context, I’m going to share with you a story that I think you might be able to relate to. I think this happens more often than not, or is more common than not. You likely know somebody like this, like the person that I’m going to be talking about.
I have a friend who thinks he knows more than he actually does. [laughs]
And I know, I know that sounds cruel, that sounds very mean and judgy, but hear me out here, hear me out.
It’s not that he’s unintelligent by any stretch. It’s just that I think he often uses his logic to make predictions of how things will turn out, to make predictions of outcomes of certain things.
And because he thinks he’s using his logic, he speaks very definitively about these predictions.
He’ll share these things with me, “Oh yeah, it’s gonna turn out this way, it’s gonna turn out this way.”
He shares these things with me very definitively, as if their truth and their fact, as if that outcome will in fact happen. I mean, why wouldn’t it? He used his logic to come up with that prediction.
In reality, he’s wrong like 99% of the time, 99.9% of the time.
He’s completely – at least the stuff that he shares with me, these predictions that he’s logically worked out that will happen – he’s rarely, rarely ever right.
However, however, that 0.1% of the time… Watch out! Watch out, because it’s gonna be, “I told you so, I told you so.”
And so that 0.1% of the time that he does actually get a prediction right is enough for him to think that his logic is sound and that he can continue to make these predictions!
And again, it’s not so much that he’s unintelligent or even that his logic isn’t sound.
But the truth is, you can never predict the future.
You can never predict what will actually happen with 100% certainty.
So for me, when I hear people speak with certainty that they know this, they know that, and they know how it’s going to turn out, they know what this person is going to do, it just really honestly sounds foolish because again, it’s impossible for anybody to know.
So let’s rewind now back to about the three minute mark towards the beginning of the episode where Ahsoka and Sabine are having a discussion about some difficult choices that at least Ahsoka feels like they’re going to have to make.
Ahsoka obviously is very aware of the imminent threat of the bad guys going and finding Thrawn. In order to prevent this from happening and thereby preventing another galactic war, they’re faced with a real decision of perhaps destroying the map, which will also then prevent them from finding Ezra.
Ahsoka seems to be very resolved in this decision.
However, Sabine, not so much, not so much.
I think it’s pretty clear that Sabine isn’t ready to give up on Ezra yet. I think she’s still willing to put up a fight to not only prevent the bad guys from fulfilling their plan, but also at the same time, you know, still maintain the ability to save Ezra.
In a later scene, Ahsoka goes on to say to Sabine that, “Sometimes we have to do what’s right regardless of our personal feelings.”
And honestly, I think Ahsoka misses the mark a little bit here with this one, with this piece of advice. Sure, I know she feels like preventing another Galactic War outweighs saving their friend.
But really, as far as wrong or right goes, it just depends on who you ask. It just depends on perspective because, I mean, to Sabine, saving Ezra is tremendously important, right?
And she’s not willing to give up on that yet.
This is that rock and a hard place.
And it’s only a rock and a hard place because we have no idea how it’s going to turn out. Because there’s so much uncertainty, it makes this decision very, very difficult for the both of them.
So what do we do? What do we do?
In real world context, what do we do?
Well, first, let’s start with what not to do.
I say don’t be a Sith in this situation, especially if you’re faced with a big decision, right?
A life-altering decision, a career change, or you’re doing something new, something that feels risky, something that feels very, very uncertain.
Don’t be a Sith.
Don’t sit there and try to logically predict the outcomes. Don’t think that you’ll know how things are going to turn out. Don’t try to even rationalize or work it out.
As smart and logical as you might think you’re being, the reality is you’re just guessing. You’re just guessing.
And on top of that, more often than not, these guesses or what you think are rationalizations, they’re really just coming from a place of anxiety and fear and worry. You’re just projecting these anxieties and fears and worries into what you think the outcomes are going to be, and ultimately perhaps prevent you from making the right decisions.
So don’t make decisions on how you think things are going to turn out, or how you’ve logically rationalized things will work out.
Now you might be asking, well Ronnie, experience has to count for something, right?
And yes, you are absolutely right.
If we go back to Episode 3 or Ahsoka Part 3, Ahsoka even says, “Learn to anticipate.”
And this makes absolute sense.
As you go through life, you have more experiences, and if you are intentionally and purposefully reflecting on those experiences so that you learn from them, so that you gain wisdom from them, then you’ll have increased your ability to make more informed decisions moving forward.
But that’s completely different than making a decision based on what you think will happen, based on projections of an unknown future.
Because in truth, that’s just guessing.
So yes, make an informed decision based on the wisdom you’ve gained from past experiences. Don’t make decisions based on your predictions of how you think things will turn out.
The next thing you can do then is something that I think Sabine does very well in this particular episode, and that is she’s working with what she knows, she’s working with what she has, she’s working with what’s right in front of her.
She knows that the bad guys have the map, and that the map will lead them to Thrawn, but she also knows that they’re not there yet, so there’s still a chance to prevent all of that.
She also knows that the same map is likely the only thing that’s going to help them find Ezra, and so these are the parameters that she’s working with, these are the facts that are right in front of her, and she’s leaving everything open to possibility, right?
She’s leaving all these possibilities open.
I think Sabine works with the mindset that, hey, if I’m still standing, we can still work this out, we can still make this happen, and we see this at the end of the episode.
You know, when she’s faced with destroying the map or allowing the bad guys to go find Thrawn, she actually chooses to go with them to that location where Thrawn and presumably Ezra are, and I think in the back of our mind, as long as I’m, you know, “I’m still standing, I can still find a way to make this work”, right?
“I can still find a way to both find Ezra and foil their plan of getting Thrawn back to the galaxy.”
Again, she’s keeping all of these possibilities open.
I think Sabine really is leaning into her own ability to work it out and to make it happen, which, you know, might be a little ill-informed, but, you know, she has at least enough confidence to make the decision that she makes.
Whereas Ahsoka, not that Ahsoka isn’t confident, but she wants a more assured outcome, right?
And I think because of that, her mindset and her decision making, I think, wants to force one [particular] outcome as opposed to keeping the possibilities all open.
And it makes sense. Again, she’s coming from a perspective of wanting to prevent a galactic war.
Anyways, the point is, make decisions based on what’s in front of you, based on the facts, based on the things that have been laid before you, not on what ifs.
What ifs don’t exist anywhere except in your head. And most of the time, those what ifs are based on your worries and your fears. Those what ifs are things that you actually don’t want to happen in the first place.
I have this saying – “It isn’t until it is.”
Which basically means, in the off chance that my worries and my concerns do become real, I’ll worry about them then.
I’ll factor them in.
I’ll consider them in my decision making process.
But until then, they’re not real.
So I’m not going to worry about them.
I’m not going to think about them.
I’m not going to consider them in my decision making process.
There’s no point because again, it’s not real.
And so I’ve learned to anticipate, as Ahsoka has said, by using my life experience and the things that I’ve learned from my life experience.
But I also use what’s in front of me, like Sabine. I examine and look at factually what’s been laid out before me. And doing both these things allows me to make the most informed decision.
I think if you use a combination of both of these methodologies, both of Ahsoka and Sabine’s mindsets, it’s really going to position you to make the most informed decision.
If you only employ one or the other of these methodologies or mindsets, then you potentially open yourself up to things going a little sideways, your decisions going a little sideways.
We see this beautifully illustrated in the show itself as the plot unfolds towards the end of the episode, where Sabine and Ahsoka actually part ways, right?
They split up against the advice of Hu Yang.
They split up.
And of course, the end of the episode, everything goes sideways.
Ahsoka ends up in the ocean and Sabine ends up going, you know, whatever galaxy they’re going to with the bad guys.
So do like Hu Yang says, right?
Hu Yang, in his infinite wisdom, tells them, “Stay together. You always do better that way.”
He knows that if they stay together, both of their methodologies, both of their mindsets, will balance each other out and they can make the best decisions moving forward, especially in these very, very uncertain circumstances.
And so I’ll advise you to do the same thing.
Avoid playing the guessing game like the Sith, avoid entertaining these what-ifs that don’t exist, and use a combination of the things you’ve learned from your past experiences as well as what’s directly, factually in front of you.
No matter how difficult the decision might be, no matter how uncertain things might seem, do this and it will be exactly like Hu Yang says, you’ll always do better this way.
Alright, so that’s gonna do it.
No recap today.
[laughs] Well, it’s something that I’m working on, right? I’m working on not doing a recap of the stuff that I just talked about in the same episode. So no recap today. I think I landed that in the place where I wanted to land that.
So let’s just move on to the shout out.
[Wicket soundbite: “Yub yum.”]
This week’s shout out, I think is a first for us here at Path of the Jedi. In that it is a posthumous shout out.
I thought about doing this because at the end of Ahsoka Part 4, she is in the world between worlds. We see that she is in the world between worlds.
So that got me really into that head space of moving on to the next world.
So I was reminded of my dear dear friend, Mr. Darren Falter, who we lost last November.
I want to give this shout out to him.
Partly because I really haven’t processed it yet.
I don’t do well with grief and death and processing all of that. So it’s been a tough thing to do.
And like with all good Jedi, I didn’t… you know… like he just kind of disappears into the ether.
And not really literally, but I didn’t get a chance to see him or see, you know, a viewing of him or a wake, prior to the burial and all that stuff. I think he was cremated even.
So there was no transition that I think I’m used to getting anyways when somebody in my life passes.
So it’s very, it’s very, it’s very Jedi like how he how… he how he passed on and moved on to the next world.
For me, Darren just… he was incredible.
He well, I know… known him for… knew him…
I got to get used to that…
I knew him for nearly 20 years, if not 20 years already.
It’s one of those relationships that you just don’t count. You just lose count because you’re just… it’s, you know… you just expect it to go on forever.
He was integral in helping me grow as a network marketer, grow in my career, in my vocation… you know, with network marketing, with sales, with marketing, with personal development, right?
With, you know, mindset and philosophy… everything top to bottom, you know… he was really integral in guiding me every step of the way to the very end… I saw him in October of last year, only weeks before he passed.
So he was, he was, I was going to say he has been… but he was integral to all of that.
And, but beyond that, just like with any good apprentice… or master and apprentice relationship in Star Wars, right? Master and Padawan… with any good Master and Padawan relationship in Star Wars, it just grows to so much more than just student and teacher.
You know, we became brothers.
I really, I really felt that and I believe that.
And I would wager that he felt and believed the same thing.
I mean, one thing about him is that there’s one individual that cracks me up… that there isn’t any individual – sorry – that has cracked me up more than him in my professional life.
So… and so I always worked my hardest… I did what I could to make him laugh, right?
Because if you can make the funniest person you know laugh, then that’s a win, that’s a solid win.
So we had this kind of relationship where we’re always just kind of goofing around, and we could goof around with each other on a level that I don’t necessarily know that anybody else could, right?
So it was just our thing, at least I feel like… I’ll own it as our thing.
And so yeah, it’s really strange for me to talk about him not being here, because yeah, he’s just kind of gone… you know what I mean?
It was a very sudden loss, his passing, it was unexpected for sure.
As I said, it’s one of those relationships that you just expect to keep going.
That’s why you don’t count the years and the experiences.
You just expect it to always be around.
And unfortunately, that’s not the case, right?
That’s the one thing that’s certain in this life is change.
And there’s definitely an impermanence that Star Wars teaches us.
And I got that lesson firsthand a lot, actually, in the last handful of years, but most recently with Mr. Darren Falter.
A guy that has touched my life has left a permanent mark.
What’s that song in Wicked?
“Because I knew you, I’ve been changed for good,” right?
“Like a handprint on my heart.”
He’s left a permanent handprint on my heart, and he will be sorely missed.
I know he is sorely missed by everybody that he’s touched.
And it’s not just me.
Like this is one of those individuals who touched countless lives, countless lives over the years. And I know I speak on behalf of them in saying that I miss him terribly and that he will be missed terribly by everybody, continues to be missed by everybody.
And so he’s left a, he’s definitely left a space.
But I think the silver lining is he’s, what he’s also left is enough of himself for us Padawans to pass forward, right?
You know, I consider myself very fortunate to be a part of his Padawan lineage, and his Jedi lineage.
And I, you know… this show is a reflection of that, right?
It’s a reflection [and extension] of the stuff that I’ve learned and picked up from him over the years.
So Darren… I mean, I could go on and on with this with a shout out and memorializing you… but wherever you are out there, I know you’re one with the Force and I know you’re listening…
This shout out goes to YOU.
[Blasters soundbite]
Okay, so as usual, I’m going to ask you to please think of one person, just one person who you think might appreciate and enjoy this content, this episode, this podcast, and just share it with them, right?
Do us a favor and share it with them.
It’ll take you like two, three seconds, press a couple buttons, but it will go a long way to helping us grow the show and get these messages, these ideas, these principles out there to the world.
So again, just think of one person who you think might enjoy this stuff and share it with them.
[Star Wars soundbite: “I’m going in. Cover me, Porky.”]
All right. Well, I really appreciate you guys sticking around.
If you’re not already following the show, go ahead and hit that follow button.
But otherwise, I’ll catch you next week with Ahsoka Part 5.
So until then, have a great rest of your week and weekend.
Take care of yourself, take care of each other, and may the Force be with you.
[Dsiclaimer]
This podcast is not endorsed by the Walt Disney Company nor Lucasfilm Ltd., and is intended for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. The official Star Wars website can be found at www.starwars.com. Star Wars, all names and sounds and any other Star Wars related items are registered trademarks and or copyrights of Disney and their respective trademark and copyright holders.
All original content of this podcast is intellectual property of Path of the Jedi, unless otherwise indicated.
[Yoda giggle soundbite]
Leave a Reply