When somebody says the phrase JUST DO IT, it sounds sturdy. It sounds motivational. It feels like the one approach to maneuver ahead, to interrupt by means of inertia, to sort out a giant undertaking, to shift your mind-set.
We’ve been bought the slogan as daring and galvanizing, and we’ve seen the commercials so many occasions that it’s change into widespread sense: if you wish to succeed, you merely cease ready, you cease overthinking, you cease procrastinating, you cease being caught, you get off “the sofa,” and also you simply do it.
However what if I advised you that JUST DO IT is, actually, horrible recommendation?
After I say this, persons are usually shocked, particularly in private growth circles. Motivational conferences promote JUST DO IT as an incredible concept; nonetheless, neuroscience and psychology present that JUST DO IT doesn’t work — particularly not in the way in which it’s normally supplied.
What’s unsuitable with the JUST DO IT slogan?
In actuality, the JUST DO IT mentality can create extra issues: emotional challenges, decrease shallowness, long-term motion avoidance, and continual frustration. It may also be shame-inducing, invalidating, and even insensitive once you say JUST DO IT to another person (and even your self). Extra on that later!
Each time that I learn or hear JUST DO IT, my physique reacts. It jogs my memory of occasions once I was attempting the toughest, nearly the unimaginable, to simply do it, and it wouldn’t work.
- If I attempted arduous sufficient, then I needed to succeed, so perhaps I wasn’t attempting arduous sufficient, or perhaps I’d by no means be ok. SHAME.
- If I actually needed to do it, I’d (or, as motivation would say, “I’d discover a approach, not an excuse”). So perhaps I don’t know what I need.
- If I wish to do it, then I can simply begin. However not taking any steps to organize for the duty sabotages the doable outcomes and creates a cycle of failure.
Fortunately, by understanding why JUST DO IT fails, you may achieve new views and undertake higher recommendation. You’ll need an strategy that yields actual outcomes over a protracted time frame, moderately than making a cycle of “attempt more durable, really feel responsible, attempt more durable, really feel worse.”
Prepare, as I unpack:
- The cultural enchantment of JUST DO IT (why we fall for it and even swear by it)
- The neuroscience and psychology of why the JUST DO IT philosophy usually fails, usually backfires, and units us up for disappointment.
- Many contexts the place JUST DO IT is the worst recommendation
- What to say as an alternative of JUST DO IT
- What to try this works long run
- How figuring out the information round JUST DO IT impacts your bodily well being, social expertise, emotional well being, mind-set, relationships, and general success.
- A Neuroscience-backed and Trauma-Knowledgeable Positivity strategy that actually works.
Let’s dive in, we could, love?
1. The Attract of JUST DO IT.
When you fell for the JUST DO IT entice, it’s not your fault. There’s a cause the slogan resonates, and it’s nearly irresistible. It hits some key emotional triggers:
a. JUST DO IT affirms company
(“You’re in management. Cease ready and do it.”) This is the reason many motivational audio system at private growth seminars use this punchy, sticky phrase. You’ll affiliate this sudden feeling of energy with their occasion, and that’s constructive… for them and their backside line. However a promise of management is an empty promise as a result of nobody can management every thing, and motherhood humbles anybody who’s ever tried even for a day. Doing the interior work has proven me that my want for management is definitely an indication of one thing that’s unhealed, so you might wish to ponder that.
b. JUST DO IT provides you a way that you simply’ve lastly discovered the answer to chop by means of evaluation paralysis.
Telling your self “simply do it” feels such as you’re shaking off procrastination, self-doubt, and overthinking (all regular human states). It’s like a easy and direct constructive affirmation – and also you’ve heard that’s all you must change your life.
Affirmations may be useful, however everyone knows it’s not that easy.
c. JUST DO IT suits the cultural perfect of hustle, arduous work, and a no-excuses mentality.
We’re drawn to it as a result of now we have been socialized to be to-do checklist task-master doers and to affiliate our worth with these gadgets we examine off. Nonetheless, I at all times say that “the no excuses mindset leaves room for no grace.” And we name every thing an excuse!
Does JUST DO IT ever work?
The JUST DO IT recommendation solely works once you already know precisely what must be completed, when the duty is straightforward, concrete, low-risk, nicely inside your competence and capability. precisely what to do; it’s doable. Whilst you may not be solely snug with the thought, you are feeling assured, succesful, and competent. However that’s the place we discover the hole: not everybody has the identical skill to simply do it, even when it appears easy.
When the recommendation JUST DO IT is obtainable as a common panacea for each problem, it turns into unhealthy recommendation for a lot of. And that’s when it’s normally given: in ads, motivational conferences, and even church buildings!
Need an instance?
Think about encouraging somebody to ship a chilly sponsorship pitch or apply for a paid talking alternative after they lack the credentials, preparation, or belongings wanted to land it.
Sure, they may simply do it, however they simply gained’t get it. Savage? No, simply information, lady!
The dopamine will put on off, and their lack of preparation and lack of thoughtfulness would possibly even jeopardize future alternatives.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson mentioned, “Shallow males consider in luck. Robust males consider in trigger and impact.” Trigger and impact” is intentional, methodical, and primarily based on reasoning, logic, preparation, and religion – as a result of religion with out motion is lifeless.
Or how about these conditions by which you attempt to JUST DO IT, however the process feels so daunting and overwhelming that you simply change into sorely conscious you could’t just do it, so that you assume there’s one thing unsuitable with you?
JUST DO IT doesn’t apply to everybody each time, and it may be extra dangerous than useful in lots of circumstances.
2. Why “JUST DO IT” Fails the Mind Science Check
Have you ever seen the film The Secret or learn the ebook? I’ve had the privilege to share the stage with lots of the academics in The Secret and even labored as a part of their group of advisors (assume Bob Proctor, Jack Canfield, Lisa Nichols, and extra!).
John Assaraf, one of many featured academics in The Secret and a New York Occasions Bestselling Creator, usually shares in regards to the neuroscience behind why JUST DO IT fails. The nucleus accumbens (NAc) and the insula are two mind areas that work collectively to type our inside motivational system. The NAc primarily drives reward-seeking and motivation, whereas the insula acts as a “brake” or regulator. The sturdy pull of “simply do it” lights up this space of our mind and sends the feel-good chemical compounds (dopamine, adrenaline).
Sure, JUST DO IT would possibly quickly get us shifting, however, as you might already know and even have skilled, “most individuals who simply do it cease doing it inside a day or two or three or 4,” as John Assaraf defined. “The mind analysis tells us that once we initially get this excited feeling and that dopamine is launched, there are additionally some counter neurochemicals that play an element in simply doing it.”
The WHAT IF voices take over:
- What if I simply do it and I fail?
- What if I simply do it and I succeed, and I can’t preserve that stage of efficiency or habits?
- What if I simply do it and disappoint myself or somebody I really like in my household, like my youngsters, my partner, or somebody I work with or for?
As an IFS practitioner (Inner Household System), we name these voices “components.” Some components need us to “simply do it,” whereas different components wish to save us and shield us from heartache, embarrassment, and ache that now we have skilled previously. As these ideas and recollections floor whereas we “simply do it,” the protecting self-talk overrides the Nike slogan and its rush of motivation. “Simply do it” then causes concern, inflicting one to moveback into the protection zone.
Let’s speak about different neuroscience-based issues:
a) Willpower is restricted
In accordance with researchers in psychology, the thought you could merely depend on willpower — JUST DO IT — is deeply flawed. I at all times speak to my shoppers and neighborhood about how commercials overlook that the athletes who simply do it have coaches for each facet wanted to attain their targets.
Athletes have a sport plan, routine, routines, methods, assets, and assist methods to feed their willpower and be certain that they “do it.” They don’t “simply do it,” they’re set as much as do it when willpower fails.
Neuroscience confirms that willpower is finite. Think about somebody telling you to JUST DO IT when your stress or trauma responses activate! This isn’t sustainable as a result of our prefrontal cortex is offline when in a triggered state.
b) The mind resists change
One factor widespread to each human mind is that it doesn’t deal with change as if it have been ever a good suggestion. In accordance with neurobiology and decision-making, the mind must calibrate habits – assessing the dangers and rewards.
If you say phrases like JUST DO IT, you bypass that calibration and trigger the mind to create resistance.
c) The issue is commonly underlying, not simply the duty
Most of us aren’t lazy procrastinators, simply ready round till somebody utters the magic phrases JUST DO IT that can forged the magical spell to make our goals come true. There’s extra behind our inaction. Procrastination will not be the issue -it’s the symptom of one thing (or a number of associated underlying points) that’s actually happening beneath the floor.
Many people have truly tried to simply do it 1,000,000 occasions, and it appeared like an unimaginable process. As a result of JUST DO IT appears to be straightforward and to work for everybody else, however not for us, we begin to assume that our mind is damaged – that we’re damaged.
If you say JUST DO IT to somebody who’s been procrastinating on one thing, they:
- really feel not seen, not understood
- really feel like their wrestle will not be legit
- really feel hopeless and alone
The recommendation of JUST DO IT makes it appear to be “doing it” needs to be straightforward. However “doing it” is exactly what feels something however straightforward to “the procrastinator.” It’s an insurmountable hurdle.
This gaslighting and invalidation sends the message that “regular” folks can simply recover from it, it doesn’t matter what. It might make somebody really feel faulty on a elementary stage, and their shallowness and psychological well being will undergo.
What’s worse is that once we internalize the toxic labels of lazy, procrastinator, slacker (and who is aware of what others), we don’t deal with the emotional, bodily, and environmental roots of the issue.
3. Contexts The place “Simply Do It” Is THE Worst Recommendation
JUST DO IT, similar to its cousin, “simply cease it,” doesn’t acknowledge that each particular person is totally different and faces distinctive challenges. After we assume that everybody is preventing a battle, we don’t make the error of oversimplifying the emotional, psychological, environmental, and even behavioral context of somebody in our lives.
JUST DO IT lacks compassion, context, and caring. It doesn’t prolong understanding, which is what one wants, particularly when it appears the entire world is watching you fall and never providing a hand.
JUST DO IT simply doesn’t work for actual folks. See what I did there?
Let’s speak about some situations the place that is terrible recommendation is damaging and demoralizing, and that is simply scratching the floor:
a) Neurodiversity and ADHD
When somebody has ADHD, they don’t have willpower, so anticipating them to carry out equally or higher than their friends is totally unrealistic. We’ve most likely all anticipated somebody to only do one thing we thought was straightforward or easy when coping with imminent boundaries to functioning each day.
Yeah, we didn’t do it deliberately. I do know this with all my being. BUT, once we be taught that this expectation is dismissive, to say the least, then we should attempt to do higher.
In case you are neurodiverse or perceive that your mind is wired in a different way, be happy to disregard the “JUST DO IT” recommendation and bear in mind to point out your self grace.
This free recommendation is certainly motivational disgrace.
b) Psychological Well being and Emotional Challenges
When somebody is coping with despair, nervousness, trauma, or emotional challenges, the thought of “simply doing it” may be extraordinarily invalidating. It ignores what the particular person is already doing: displaying up, enduring, surviving.
I can let you know that in occasions of PTSD flares or suicidal ideas, I really feel like getting off the bed alone is an achievement, and if I handle to brush my tooth, wow…. bonus factors.
JUST DO IT neglects the mind-set we’re in, which is uncaring. Telling somebody JUST DO IT might really feel like: “Try to be higher by now,” which is each unhelpful and dangerous.
If you’re therapeutic from trauma, nervousness, or despair, JUST DO IT invalidates your expertise.
c) Persistent Sickness or Bodily Well being Constraints
If an individual has a continual sickness, what counts as a “process” or “step” might look totally different. The JUST DO IT mentality could make them really feel faulty for not assembly full-strength norms. And it doesn’t actually matter that that’s not your intention – it’s the way it usually lands when somebody has an invisible sickness or incapacity.
As a substitute of acknowledging scaled steps (little issues), they’re advised to “go full-speed.” That’s not solely unrealistic — it ignores the necessity for pacing, adaptation, resting, and therapeutic.
For these residing with continual sickness, JUST DO IT disregards pacing, vitality administration, and bodily knowledge. Listening to your physique — honoring relaxation — is the suitable factor and a part of sustainable progress.
d) Massive Initiatives, Lengthy Durations of Time, Lengthy Course of
Ohhhh, this can be a massive one, particularly round January with the so-called New Yr’s resolutions. When somebody embarks on a lofty endeavor—akin to writing a ebook, launching a enterprise, therapeutic from trauma, or constructing a powerful relationship—the JUST DO IT mantra is particularly dangerous.
JUST DO IT fails to account for time, the need of small list-style steps, the lengthy time frame required, and the iterative nature of progress. It additionally ignores the self-doubt and second-guessing that come up, as a result of once we are going for our goals, we face each interior and outer struggles.
For instance, when you have two folks pursuing the identical objective, the state of affairs is likely to be totally different for somebody whose youngsters are grown or who by no means had any, than for one more who’s juggling home chores, skilled work, and elevating toddlers. You may inform her to JUST DO IT all day on a regular basis – however can she?
e) Beliefs or Thought Patterns
If it have been actually as straightforward as you assume, we’d actually simply do it – no motivation or stress wanted. Don’t you assume?
It’s not the factor that feels daunting; it’s the psychological roadblock tied to the factor. That’s why we procrastinate and postpone it.
To an outsider, it would appear like perfectionism, procrastination, laziness, or easy work refusal or avoidance, however there’s extra to it: from lack of readability, concern of rejection or failure, or deep beliefs and thought patterns that make it unsafe to behave.
A trauma-informed strategy asks: “What feels secure sufficient to start?”
The JUST DO IT mindset usually falls aside as a result of actual progress comes from understanding what’s holding you again and dealing with it, not towards it.
f) Transition Phases
For adolescents and younger adults making sense of their careers, social expertise, emotional growth, and life themes, telling them JUST DO IT ignores the necessity for reflection, values alignment, determining what’s an excellent match, and recognizing that step one could also be readability, not motion.
The identical applies to anyone redesigning their life after a job change or divorce: generally step one is deciding what you need, not simply “do one thing.”
The truth is, simply doing one thing is likely to be catastrophic as a result of we’d make big errors we come to remorse, and, to be sincere, we’d additionally come to resent the one who supplied the JUST DO IT recommendation. Don’t let that be you!
What Works As a substitute: Good Recommendation Constructed on Neuroscience ~
The Trauma-Knowledgeable Positivity™ Different
Given the entire above causes to scratch JUST DO IT out of your vocabulary, right here’s a unique, higher recommendation — one grounded in neuroscience, psychological well being knowledge, and sustained progress.
1. Discover Readability by means of Curiosity
Trauma-Knowledgeable Positivity™ invitations us to pause and see the emotional cost beneath the JUST DO IT impulse.
Fairly often, step one on a journey isn’t to simply do it however to replicate and reconnect together with your “why” earlier than attending to the “what.” Beginning with acts of regulation creates security in your nervous system — a prerequisite for significant motion.
Assume questions like:
- “Would I be appearing from self-trust or disgrace or self-pressure?”
- “Is that this an excellent match for me proper now?”
- “Am I in the suitable bodily, psychological, or emotional state to take this motion?”
If you align together with your values and mind-set, the motion turns into much less random. Good intentions aligned with readability cut back resistance and produce sustainable outcomes.
In the identical sense, you wish to get interested in any resistance, concern, or doubts that is likely to be developing and what the underlying causes is likely to be.
- “What am I attempting to keep away from?”
- “Why is that this triggering for me?”
- “Why does this really feel like disgrace and stress?”
Sure, this evaluation might delay motion to give attention to a peaceful nervous system. You assist the mind-set to take actions that really matter and align with who you’re meant to be. This isn’t simply price it, however it is going to additionally yield the most effective outcomes.
2. Acknowledge What’s Wanted
Earlier than launching into JUST DO IT mode, you wish to ask what is important. This can be a good step, even should you’re shopping for tennis sneakers. Wink, wink.
A few of us will want preparation, training, coaching, teaching, remedy, assist, emotional assist, an individual or group to delegate one thing to, further cash, or time allotted to finish the duty, and so forth.
Some folks say, “All of us have 24 hours, similar to Beyoncé and Oprah,” and that’s a really unfair comparability. I don’t find out about yours, however their 24 hours look completely nothing like mine! For sure, their atmosphere, assist system, time, and cash freedom are on one other stage.
A Trauma-Knowledgeable Positivity™ will not be primarily based on comparability, however on a aware effort to honor your capability. And even Oprah’s and Beyoncé’s capability will fluctuate with sleep, stress, and scaffolding ranges. Proper?
There isn’t a “Simply” to doing it; it’s deliberate, intentional, purposeful motion that comes from considerate consideration. Earlier than shopping for into the JUST DO IT marketing campaign, it’s smart to ask: “What sort of assist or accountability can be useful to make it work?”
JUST DO IT would possibly promote sneakers, however it doesn’t heal hearts, construct habits, or maintain objective. JUST DO IT doesn’t present an actionable framework or blueprint for taking strategic steps and getting ready for the objective.
3. Select methods and steps which might be best for you
JUST DO IT may be impulsive, random, and misaligned, which ends up in burnout. A much more sustainable strategy is: “What’s one small step you may take now?” That is particularly essential when the objective is giant, you’ve felt caught, otherwise you’re coping with any emotional / well being / cognitive burdens – whether or not long-term or non permanent.
After we change JUST DO IT with “do what you may,” and “do what you already know is true,” we are able to set ourselves as much as win, have a good time, and leverage that momentum.
I say this as a result of I completely love this quote: “Do what you may with what you will have from the place you’re.” Squire Invoice Widener mentioned this, not Theodore Roosevelt, by the way in which. However the level is that that is the strategy we’d like – one tailor-made to our context, atmosphere, and tempo.
It’s about specializing in doing the suitable factor for you and doing what solely you are able to do.
Work together with your mind
Neuroscience tells us that the mind loves predictability and rewards. Following confirmed patterns, blueprints, roadmaps, and formulation, and establishing successful supportive methods and routines to carry out small, doable, and constant actions is the way you attain achievement.
And, after all, we are able to’t win all of them, so we are going to fail or fall “off observe,” generally. That’s wholesome progress. In these moments, the mind and physique each reply to alerts of security, compassion, and relaxation. It’s not the time for the JUST DO IT disgrace, however for celebrating your progress and embracing your tempo with out disgrace.
Just a few prompts for celebration:
- “What went proper with what you probably did?”
- “What did you be taught that didn’t work?”
- “What are you able to select to be glad about?”
Changing guilt with gratitude will rewire your mind and strengthen your neural pathways towards true progress, wholeness, and success.
You don’t must JUST DO IT to succeed
The excellent news is that constructive psychology, neuroscience, and compassion agree: You don’t have to purchase into the simplistic JUST DO IT mantra. My framework, Trauma-Knowledgeable Positivity™, reframes motion by means of self-attunement: “I can take one small, variety step right this moment. That’s sufficient.”
You don’t must drive your self into motion. You may nurture your self into momentum — and that’s a much more highly effective and lasting method to do the proper factor to your life, your objective, and your peace.
Give your self permission to customise your strategy. One that’s human, practical, aligned together with your context, that values pacing, small steps, constant effort, reflection, and most significantly, grace. One which shifts to “progress over time,” “small constant effort,” and “technique plus motion.”
After we merge neuroscience, self-compassion, and Trauma-Knowledgeable Positivity™, we transfer past slogans and into sustainable transformation. You understand that slowing down, tending to your wants, and taking intentional, wholesome, small actions will not be weak — they’re strategic.
Shedding the JUST DO IT Disgrace
Your mind wants security, not shaming. Your mind doesn’t reply to stress, disgrace, or oversimplification. The mind performs greatest when it feels secure. JUST DO IT language can set off risk responses — combat, flight, freeze, or fawn — moderately than motivation. In distinction, compassion, curiosity, and co-regulation assist re-engage motivation circuits.
The Trauma-Knowledgeable Positivity™ strategy transforms your psychological well being, bodily well being, social expertise, and your personal profession path; your entire self. You’ll nonetheless transfer, perhaps even quicker, since you are not caught in guilt, frustration, or emotional overwhelm. You’ll obtain extra over time since you’re constructing from a basis of security, not disgrace, of self-trust, not self-force, of compassion, not coercion, of understanding, not urgency.
To know whether or not you’re on the suitable path, a key indicator is whether or not you (or the particular person you wish to assist) really feel understood, accepted, and hopeful. Hope is at all times an incredible place to start out a journey and makes an enormous distinction.
So now it’s your flip to reply, “What assist do you must take the subsequent light step towards what issues most?” Share with us within the feedback part beneath.
Founding father of the Optimistic MOM® and creator of the S.T.O.R.Y. System: a blueprint to craft and share highly effective tales that can rework your outcomes and assist others do the identical. Dr. Elayna Fernández is a single mother of 4, an award-winning Storyteller, Story Strategist, and Pupil of Ache. She’s a bestselling writer, internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, and 5x TEDx speaker. She has spoken on the United Nations, acquired the President’s Volunteer Lifetime Achievement Award, and was chosen as one of many Prime Impactful Leaders and a Girl of Affect by SUCCESS Journal. Join with Elayna at thepositivemom.com/ef and comply with @thepositivemom. To obtain a present from Elayna, click on HERE.
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