The “Just Do It” Mentality: Why It Works, and When It Doesn’t
Warning: this article includes spoilers for the 1999 movie The Matrix.
“Just do it” is a brilliant slogan for a company that sells athletic shoes and clothing. It conjures up an image of someone starting their daily workout, pushing laziness and hesitation aside to accomplish something outstanding.
It’s also a brilliant marketing tactic. Imagine someone looking at a sweatshirt or pair of sneakers, contemplating the purchase, asking themselves, “do I really need this?” And there, right in front of them, in bold letters, is that slogan: “Just Do It.” The slogan has probably nudged more than one person to make a purchase.
But let’s set all of those inspiring Nike ads aside for a moment. In our real, everyday lives, can saying “just do it” motivate us to accomplish things that seem difficult? Can a “just do it” mindset make us put down our phones and start exercising, study for an exam, or complete some other task that we’ve been avoiding? There are certainly people who say that a “just do it” mindset is the key to creating results. But does it really work?
Sometimes it does. But not always.
My wife and I were recently re-watching the original Matrix movie. In one early scene, Trinity, played by Carrie-Anne Moss, is pursued by an Agent—a ruthless, deadly enemy. She jumps through a window in a desperate attempt to escape and tumbles to the bottom of a flight of stairs. Still laying on the floor, she immediately spins around and points two pistols back up at the window.
We can see the paralyzing fear on Trinity’s face as she stares up at the broken window. She’s expecting the Agent who was chasing her to come bursting through it at any second, intent on destroying her. She needs to get up and run, but is frozen by fear.
“Get up, Trinity,” she whispers to herself. “Just get up. Get up!”
And she does.
It’s a powerful scene, and interesting to think about in terms of Trinity’s story within the Matrix universe. Trinity is a soldier. The movie only reveals a few details about her past, but we can infer that she has been through hours upon hours of grueling combat training and many actual missions. Her mental strength, endurance, and resilience have undoubtedly been tested many times. We can easily imagine that she pushed herself to overcome a great many challenges by telling herself, “just do it, Trinity. Just do it.”
Watching this scene reminded me of some examples from my own life, times when saying “just do it,” worked for me, and why it worked, but also why it doesn’t always work.
I was not naturally athletic as a child. Throughout elementary school, when we picked teams for games, I was usually the last person chosen. I did play baseball one year in a local youth league in spite of my lack of skill, and basketball another year.
In junior high school and high school I wrestled and played football. This wasn’t because of a deep love for the sport, or because I had dreams of imitating some athlete I admired. It was mainly because my best friends, who were much more athletically inclined, all joined the team and encouraged me to join with them.
My performance in all of these sports was mediocre on a good day. But the hours of practice helped me get in much better physical shape than I would have otherwise. I also learned important lessons about mental strength and tenacity. I learned about the power of staying committed to something even when it wasn’t fun.
All of this happened before Nike made “just do it” the symbol of their brand, but I’m sure that I heard that phrase and similar ones many, many times during practice, both out loud and in my head. And it worked. In spite of feeling exhausted—and often, very defeated—I would do another pushup, run another lap, or practice a move five more times. It wasn’t because the words “just do it” ignited some magical flame of motivation within me. I did those things because our coach told me to do them, and because my friends and other teammates were doing them. Authority and peer pressure can be powerful motivators.
“But the paralyzing voice of fear would still invade my thoughts sometimes. When it did, my best response was often to say, ‘just do it.’ That was what got me to stand up, walk to the door, and jump.”
Later, while attending college, I discovered a few sports that I did enjoy and do well. One of them, skydiving, became more than a sport for me. It became my passion and career for over 15 years. There were definitely times during those years when I accomplished things by saying, “just do it.”
I worked for a while as a test jumper for a company that tested parachute equipment. (Yes, that’s a thing.) The job sometimes involved jumping out of a plane wearing some type of unusual, experimental parachute system. Occasionally, as I sat in the plane climbing to jump altitude, knowing the multitude of things that could go wrong and possibly kill me, a voice in my head would say, “nope. No way. I’m not doing this.”
No one would have questioned me if I gave in to that voice. The decision to jump or not jump was always entirely mine. But I knew this was the voice of fear, not reason. Before ever putting my gear on and boarding the plane, I had analyzed the risks and taken steps to minimize them. I had practiced the emergency procedures that I would follow if something went wrong. I would never have boarded the plane if I wasn’t completely confident in my ability to handle any problem that occurred.
But the paralyzing voice of fear would still invade my thoughts sometimes. When it did, my best response was often to say, “just do it.” That was what got me to stand up, walk to the door, and jump.
Looking back, I realize how playing sports when I was young taught me how to push through a challenge and keep going when I was afraid, demotivated, tired, or even in pain. I don’t believe that phrases like “just do it” activate some natural internal response that every human is born with. For me, at least, this was something that I learned from my friends, teammates, and coaches.
It makes sense that the “just do it” mindset will motivate some people to action but not others. Someone who has played sports or been in the military may have been forced by their coaches, drill instructors, or peers to “suck it up” and do things that they didn’t feel like doing. They have had the experience of successfully accomplishing tasks—even very challenging ones—by being told, or telling themselves, to “just do it.” Their brain has learned to accomplish things this way.
But what if you’re not one of those people? Maybe you haven’t had these types of experiences. What then?
A “just do it” approach might still work if a task is relatively easy or if it’s important enough to you. This can be especially true if the task is already an established habit. Maybe you’ve taken your dog for a 30-minute walk every day for the past two years. On a day when you’re tired or it’s cold and raining and you don’t feel like going for a walk, telling yourself to “just do it” might be enough to get you out the door. A small nudge is all you need.
But what if a task seems more complex, seems much more challenging, or isn’t an established habit? What if the “just do it” approach works for you sometimes, but seems frustratingly ineffective at other times?
There’s still good news. A “just do it” mindset isn’t the only way to accomplish things.
A number of tools and methods can help you finish a task that you’ve been ignoring or bring a new, healthy habit into your life. These methods do require more effort than simply saying “just do it.” Fortunately, most of the effort involves learning how the methods work and deciding exactly how you want to apply them.
Methods that consistently help people achieve results often teach us to do three things:
1. Clearly define the desired outcome. We easily set ourselves up for disappointment by choosing a broad or vague goal. Success comes more easily when we define the exact outcome we want. For example, saying “I want to learn how to surf” might or might not result in you spending joyful days catching waves on an elegant longboard. That’s more likely to happen if you say, “I want to take surfing lessons during my beach trip this coming July.”
2. Break large tasks down into smaller steps. Maybe when you read my surfing example you thought, “that’s a great idea. I’m going to the beach in July and I’ve always wanted to surf. I actually will take surfing lessons during my beach trip!” That’s fun, but how exactly will you make that happen? What is the first step that you’ll take? Going online to find a surf shop that gives lessons at the beach you’re visiting would be an excellent choice. It’s a clear, actionable step.
3. Complete individual steps using a structured approach. Now you know the first step to take on your quest to learn to surf: you will use your Google-Fu to find places that offer lessons. When are you going to make that happen? If your answer is, “later, when I finish work,” what will remind you to do it? What will the next step after that be, and when will you do it? Breaking a task down into actionable steps is important, but many of us are most successful when we schedule exact times to complete steps and identify triggers or create reminders that prompt us to take action.
Although a number of tools and methods incorporate these skills, the first one you try might not be a perfect fit for you and your objectives. Don’t be surprised or discouraged if you have to experiment a bit to find the exact method, or combination of methods, that works best for you. As appealing as it is to look for a one-size-fits-all solution or a grand unified theory of personal achievement, it’s unlikely that those exist.
The SMART Goal is an excellent tool, but you might need additional tools in order to actually make your goal a reality. The Bullet Journal Method has profoundly changed some people’s lives, but for you it might just be a first step, a foundation or framework to build on. The Fogg Behavior Model is a powerful tool backed by 20 years of research, but if it’s not helping you establish the habits you want then it’s fine to look elsewhere for guidance. I’ve personally learned different things from each of these tools and methods, ideas and techniques that I share with my clients and use all the time in my own life. However, none of them has, by itself, been a complete all-in-one solution for me.
The “just do it” mindset, even at its best, is a momentary boost. It’s like splashing cold water on your face to wake up. It can be the spark that ignites a rocket, but even the most powerful rockets will only burn continuously for minutes at a time, not for days or months.
To land a rover on Mars, scientists choose an exact landing point; they create a detailed, step-by-step plan; and they fire rockets in a sequence of short, precise bursts to get their rover from Earth to the Red Planet. An outcome that you want to achieve might not be that complex, but achieving it might similarly require effective planning and a step-by-step approach.
Saying “just get up” to herself got Trinity up on her feet. But if that was the only line that Carrie-Anne Moss ever said, if she just repeated that same line over and over again, the Matrix movies would not have been as interesting. Honestly, it would have been kind of weird. To accomplish what we want in our lives, we all need a more varied set of tools than that.
Are you ready to achieve great results in your life? Is the “just do it” mindset not quite getting you there? Contact me to schedule a free consultation and learn how Core Energy Coaching can help.