Embrace the ‘Just Do It’ mentality
In 1988 at an advertising agency meeting, an ad executive called Dan Wieden came up with the slogan ‘Just Do It’ for his client, a shoe company called Nike.
One of the campaign’s objectives was to target everyone, not just people interested in fitness which led to Nike products becoming a fashion statement, not just sports gear.
In fact, nearly 80 per cent of Nike’s running shoes aren’t worn for their intended purpose.
Over the next 10 years of the ‘Just Do It’ campaign, Nike’s annual worldwide sales figures exploded from $877 million dollars a year to 9.2 billion, and it’s still considered to be one of the greatest advertising slogans of all time.
A lot of successful people epitomise the mindset.
Richard Branson wrote a book titled ‘‘Screw it, let’s do it’’ and famously once said ‘‘If someone offers you an amazing opportunity, but you’re not sure you can do it; say ‘yes’ then learn how to do it later.’’
However, as much as you want to embrace the ‘Just Do It’ philosophy, it has an evil twin (almost identical) that you should avoid like the plague – ‘Just Do It Later’.
The problem with that is that it has a terrible habit of turning into ‘Haven’t Done It Yet’ which, if it’s not dealt with, will inevitably end up as ‘Never Did It.’
There was famous research done by a nurse with her terminally ill patients over a number of years.
What they shared with her was that all their biggest regrets in life didn’t revolve around mistakes they’d made, their regrets were all ‘Never Did It’s.
They all confessed to not doing certain things or not travelling certain places, not saying how they really felt to someone that really mattered, not taking opportunities when they had the chance, not making the sacrifice when it was needed, not appreciating what they had - you get the idea.
It was all these ‘Never Did It’s’ that they looked back on and regretted the most.
So what’s on your ‘Just Do It Later’ list?
Get rid of it! Chuck it out, and just start doing it or before you know it, today’s ‘Just Do It Later’ will become tomorrow’s ‘Never Did It’.
Don’t worry about whether you have experience, whether you know what you’re doing and certainly don’t worry about whether you’re ready or not – you’ll learn everything you need along the way.
British actor Hugh Laurie sums it up perfectly with ‘‘It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready.
I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything.
There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.’’
In other words Just Do It!