The best advice I’ve ever received came from an Ad slogan… Just do it.
Its simplicity is beautiful and I use it as a constant reminder when I’m fighting against anxiety or suffering from low motivation.
#1 – Anxiety
My biggest obstacle is often myself. Whenever I start new there’s a fear of the unknown and this fear can spiral unproductively into thinking about every way something can go wrong. As Arthur Brooks writes this anxiety is unfocused fear and often the best way for me to overcome it is to just do it.
In particular, this works best when thinking or evaluating more isn’t going to help me. When I worry about how cold the pool will be for 10 minutes before jumping in, I’m causing myself to suffer twice for no clear benefit. Sometimes this anxiety before jumping in can actually feel even worse than the cold sensation of the water.
My best solution is to just do it.
My anxiety dramatically reduces after jumping in, and that fear of the unknown goes away almost immediately. Like an athlete with butterflies, once the first play happens I become fully immersed in the moment and don’t stress about a hypothetical future, but instead just react to the reality of toda.y
#2 – Motivation
“The heaviest weight at the gym is the front door” (Ed Lattimore)
Shane Parrish talks about how activation energy, or getting started, is often the hardest part of completing any task. This is particularly the case when I perceive it will require a lot of energy and that just seems so hard at this moment.
But once again, my best approach is to not think days or years in the future. Instead of spiraling, just do it.
After that scary first step, I’m served best by doing two things:
- React to the terrain and the change x in response to y
- Build a habit (ex: I work out every day) so that I don’t have to overcome activation energy again in the future
But all this only works when I take that first step.
So thank you Nike for the constant reminder. My most important moments happened when I was afraid, but I still “jumped into the cold pool”. Ask the girl out, apply for the job I’m not sure I’m qualified for, hike that big scary mountain. The only way to overcome my fear is to just do it.