Just Do it!

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity!

Amelia Earhart

Nike, have “Just Do It” as their slogan. An internet search on Google currently lists 51,300,000 results for the Boolean search on those specific words! When you are standing on the ledge of a bungee jump wondering if you should leap off, at some point someone will shout – “Just do it!”

So familiar are these words in our minds and yet we seem to ignore them in so many situations. When indecision exists, where the mind is flicking between thoughts and where complaining lies, we just don’t seem to remember it.

This phrase should permeate your mind and life. The Act Anyway philosophy is built on it, but more important is the place you find yourself when you need to lean on this term the most.

What most articles focus on is the point at which the phrase needs to be used. You are going for a new job, a new relationship or new adventure. Then you tell yourself, “Just do it”. What we should be addressing is the point from which we decided to arrived at this place.

When I am dithering about an idea or action, I always try to think back about how I got there. What started me thinking that something would be a good idea or needed to change, and now it is no longer as appealing as it was? What is changing my mind to the whole decision of just going out there to do that thing!

Sitting there reading this, you may be thinking how much better you can write or how you could present this article differently. There is something that is different between us though, for all my inadequacies (and I am aware that I have them!), I am still doing it. I am writing and practising my craft and I am learning new ways of improving.

I am not sitting thinking; Should I do this or, is it a good idea to write about that? My only rule is that I do my best. The best I know how at this current moment in time. If I do that, then I can improve for next time as I learn more and more ideas and ways of working.

What about work? Are you just sitting doing the same thing and then moaning about doing the same thing over and over. Change it! The only people who do not change something are those comfortable that everything is “just good enough”.

You have the valuable opportunity of living and experiencing this life any way you choose, why would you want to settle for “just good enough”? Why would you prefer to drive a nice car, eat out every night but settle for being unhappy all day during your work, when you would be happier at work doing something you love, but have to give up those luxuries that you think are bringing so much to your life and enjoy it a little simpler?

If you love something enough your passion will shine through and take over your drives and ambitions. There will be no stopping you and your creativity and lust for life will flow. Get stuck in something you don’t like, and it will drain every ounce of life from you.

Of course, I will add that it seems careless to “Just do it” without thinking something through. That would be to ignore all your previous lessons and go and make another possible blunder, but to arrive at a decision and then give up because its too much work, or you need to think about something too long, or you need to learn something is not making the most of your opportunity to live life.

Often the problem we have as humans is not that we are incapable of doing something, planning something or even being good at something – Our fundamental weakness lies with our inability to choose what we want and then stick with it!

As a way to explain this further, think of a car, boat, motorcycle or bicycle. It is far harder to move a stationary vehicle than when its moving!

This example has always stuck with me and given me a great reason to “Just do it”. In other words, you need to be moving in a direction, whether it is in life or work, in order for you to change direction smoothly. The moment you stop and accept that you cannot do anything else, that is when it becomes so much harder to change direction.

Next time you hear yourself complaining – Stop! Write the complaint down (so you can see it) and then analyse it. Why am I complaining? Why am I in this situation and why have I not managed to change it? What do I need to do to change it?

Then in the words of Nike,

“Just do it!”

The key word in the phrase is “do”. Without this action you cannot achieve anything in this life!

So as I add another article to the already bulging hoard of articles about the “Just do it” ideology, I hope you take away a new perspective: Why are you complaining about something you are not changing? Weigh up the options and “JUST DO IT”!

*This article has become the real life example of the “Just Do It” philosophy. I think I have spent the longest time on trying to get it right, and to say what I want it to say, than when I first started writing articles. To stick with the decision to write it and ensure I have done my best doing it was my goal. Did I achieved it?