Why “Just Do It” Is Terrible Advice
(Here’s What You Should Do Instead)
If you’ve got a big project to do, then just do it. Gotta write? Do it. Want to make your dreams a reality? Then. Just. Do. It.
Nike built a great campaign by telling people that want to exercise to “just do it” (but not before grabbing a clean and shiny pair of Nike runners first).
It worked because stringing these words together taps into a drive inside all of us to sit down and relentlessly get things done until they’re completed so we can move on to the rest.
The problem though is while “just do it” sounds great on paper, it quickly falls apart under any sort of scrutiny.
We all know we need to do more to get more done but we don’t realize that there’s always something else at work stopping us from doing what we must do. And while that drive to “get things one” could always be summed up in these three catchy words, the real meaning of the phrase doesn’t hit the notes that really matter to motivate us to consistently get more done.
Let me explain.
Here’s the Problem, Really: “Just Do It” is Obvious Advice
We all know that doing the work produces the results. That’s obvious enough.
But what we don’t realize is that we’ll be stopped from achieving our success no matter what. It doesn’t matter how “bad” we want it because we’ll eventually slam into brick wall after brick wall (and we’ll get plenty of tangible and satisfying reasons to quit along the way). The thing is, no matter how hard or resilient we think we are, the human brain is going to guide us to give up more times than it’ll cheer us on to succeed.
But that’s just it’s nature, right? So how do we combat it to get the results we deserve to achieve?
(Short answer — we can’t, because we’re only human and aren’t able to “just do it” like we’re in a grinder that’s ripping away the pieces of our sanity one shred at a time).
Let’s not lose hope, though. All I’m trying to say is that “just do it” is not a fail-proof strategy for getting more things done: in fact, it’s only the obvious step towards success. We all know we need to do more to get more out of life (duh, right?). The key to carving out our own success, then, is gauging how we can go from working under a company to starting our own business or achieve our goal to get healthy and lose more weight.
“Just do it” is not a sustainable strategy towards living a better life. In fact, it’s not very helpful at all, because it’s really only a catchy string of words that are supposed to lead us to the “good life” somewhere in future times even though they can only (sometimes) prompt the action inside of us to go further and just do our goals in life already (c’mon, what are you waiting for already? Just do it!).
“Just Do It” Doesn’t Work Because It’s Hard to Always Be Doing “More” and Completing New Things.
We’re always doing things. We’re always on the run to work or doing errands or making lists about all the things we need to do.
In fact, we’re so consumed about everything we must do that we forget about everything we’ve done or need to do now. So we become consumed by lists and what I call “future doings” so much that we forget we need to do things now to have a cleaner and more relaxed mind later.
We’re so consumed by finding the next productivity “hack” that even thinking about how motivated we need to be to do the work needed to be done is mentally exhausting. But we don’t realize that we can’t always be doing new things or working on all of our projects because life doesn’t work like that.
Sometimes we hit a wall; sometimes we get stuck and the only way to move forward is to step away from the project and go on a long walk to refresh our racing minds. Sometimes we just need to take a break and step away from it all.
But we still get hung up on the fact we need to “just do it”, because that advice in itself is undoubtedly appealing.
Telling Us to Always Do Things is Demotivating — Stop It.
Sometimes I think what we really need is a drill sergeant constantly in our mind reminding us to buckle down and just do the work and make our dreams come true. But would that really be helpful?
Even having Shia Lebeouf yell at us to “just. do. it” and “make our dreams come true” is intrinsically motivating in itself. And at a time, it actually got me going. But it was like advice without any real substance, advice that once you put it under the microscope it quickly falls apart and is revealed to be all flashy style — style that’s appealing as hell but not really worth anything in the long run.
“Just do it” is advice we already know, deep inside. We know that to ace our midterm we have to study, but we have a line of excuses ready to stop us from putting the work in and just doing it. We know we need to read more, to exercise after work, to get up early sometimes to work on our side hustle because it’s the only pocket of time we have during our chaotic days, but just knowing we have to do it is not enough. And we certainly don’t always want to be doing new things, because when is enough ever enough?
“Just do it” may work for a week, a month, a year. You can “just do it” until the cows come home and even when they’re home you can still keep soldering on and doing your thing.
But somewhere along the line, this advice falls apart. It stops meaning anything. It stops pushing us forward and it’s just simply good advice. It starts to become flaky and lose its meaning, and stops really saying anything rather than restating the obvious. And instead of motivating us, it pulls us away from our goals and gets us discouraged when we look back and realize how much we just haven’t done. Hell, most of the time we believe we’re nowhere we need to be — and how could that not be discouraging?
“Just Do It” Doesn’t Account for Clinical Cycles of the Human Mind
We all get depressed and down on life, and we all get filled with anxiety from time to time. And that’s when “just do it” starts to really fall apart.
How on Earth are we supposed to always do new things when we feel no motivation to do them? For instance I know that I’m trapped in a job I hate and that I should be moving towards getting out of it, but I’m not doing anything to mend my current situation. My life is broken, my routine is shattered, but for some reason I just don’t care. I’m tired of being stuck in the cycle, and in a way I’ve become strangely okay with it.
Because while we all know we need to get work done to be more successful, or leave an unhealthy job or marriage to live happier and better lives, we can’t ignore the fact that things will get hard for all of us. We can’t push aside the fact we all get discouraged, that we all feel like frauds, that we all feel worthless many times throughout our lives (especially if we create things and put them out for others to see). In a way, I think, we’re all worried about how we’ll be perceived and just what others think about us, and this sort of thinking can easily get us stuck.
So naturally we’ll feel better when we can push through our excuses in those hard times in order to get really get things done. That’s why ads like this shine, because they really break down what’s stopping us from achieving our goals and making our mark upon the world:
But still, our excuses are powerful. And they’ll never go away, no matter how much we want them to. That’s why we have to live with them. That’s why while we’re thinking about how worthless we are, we really have to analyze the presence of our excuses and the many things holding us back from accomplishing our dreams and push them aside.
Here’s Better Advice: Do What Only You Can Do.
We all know that doing the work produces the results — that’s obvious enough. It’s easy to say you’ll get more done by getting more done. But what we don’t fully realize is that we’ll be stopped no matter how bad we want it. We’ll hit brick walls and we’ll have tons of reasons for not doing anything. We’ll want to give up more of the times than we won’t. We’re only human, after all, and we aren’t able to “just do it” all the time.
While the only thing stopping you from achieving your goals is you, we all know this deep down. No, it’s not your motivation or your willpower or the next piece of productivity advice you’ll read stopping you from getting work done, but it’s your inner drive to succeed. All the inspirational videos in the world won’t do anything for your productivity in those times of struggle, believe me.
Because life is more than a montage video. It takes sweat and guts and perseverance. There’s no “overnight success” here, no one to whip you into shape while you’re on the floor begging for it all to stop. You need to want it bad and you need to become the person you want to be, and you need to put in the work and just do it. But other times, I think we’re just fine where we are, if we just learn to accept that where we are is okay at this moment in time.
Believing in yourself is just the first part to getting more done. You need to do the work to the best of your ability, and stay positive about your life and know you can make an impact on the world in your own way. You need to find your intrinsic reason for doing what you do and latch on to it for dear life before you can be better at any aspect of life. Because choosing to move past your own reasons for not-doing will set you apart from the pack and elevate you to another level.
But mostly you just have to know it won’t come easy, and that there’s no “hack” guaranteed to give you success, no secret guaranteed to catapult you into a better life tomorrow. You have to realize that no one is here to coast you along to fame, to riches, to notoriety, and that you only have yourself in the end. So you must take responsibility for everything in your life and start owning up to every mistake you make, whether or not it’s your fault, because you can’t depend on anyone else to live your life and make your bed for you.
And that’s okay. Because when you realize you alone create your destiny, that’s when you’ll “just do it” and make your dreams come true.
And not a moment before.
Like this? I’d love if you could give it a ❤ so your followers can see it too!
Want a free copy of my latest Ebook? (<-- it’s here and it’s awesome, I promise!).
Listen, writing is hard. But if you want to consistently show up to the table so you can work on your life’s work, make sure to download a FREE copy of my 12 Stupidly-Simple Tips to Cure Writer’s Block Forever here.
It’s a no-fluff guide to help you achieve your biggest writing dreams starting today. You won’t find the traditional writing advice here.
If you’re ready to become a creative powerhouse in all that you do, all you have to do is click here. I’ll take care of the rest :)
