Just. Do. It.

Just do it. It’s great advice but it’s also devastating when you just can’t do it. You’ll often hear this phrase in inspirational talks(there’s even a pretty famous meme about it) or if you’re anything like me, you might have been telling (shouting) yourself quite often to just. Do. It.

And it hurts when you get confronted with the inability to just do it. Other people (some more than others) seem to simply flip a switch and just start doing — be it studying, working, cooking, exercising or anything else that makes sense to be doing.

But I think that there’s a lot of people who don’t manage to just do it. In fact I think that most people have trouble to flip the switch and simply start doing. There can be numerous reasons as to why this is the case, but I would like to zoom in on one reason that I think influences most people. We misunderstand what doing really means.

“Just do it” is literally just that. Just DO it. There’s a very clear emphasis on DOING. We often subconsciously translate ‘just do it!’ to ‘just succeed’ or ‘just finish it’ or ‘just be efficient’, but that’s not what is says. It’s about doing, not about efficiency, finishing or succeeding. Getting rid of the part where you have to succeed in doing relieves inhibitions that hinder a lot of us. Once we stop thinking about how to succeed, it frees up the mind and body to start moving.

Some people might note that, just doing without direction is useless. If you need to find your way from place A to B and you just start moving in a random direction, you might end up further from where you want to be in the first place.

Most people know HOW to get from A to B, they simply can’t start moving towards it.

To put my money where my mouth is I’ll leave this story unfinished here. I’ll get back to it. Below are some random notes to myself.

Have fun.

run the dishwasher twice

it’s okay that you don’t know where to move first

music and sports are gateways, facilitators

Of course there’s much to be said for planning and efficiency, however, that’s the next step. You can plan all you want, if you don’t start in the first place, no matter how efficient your plan is, you won’t get anywhere.

note some people thrive on success achievement