JUST DO IT - Why I’m loving this Nike slogan
I lived and breathed by the world-famous Nike brand slogan ‘Just do it’ for 20 years. It’s been featured in numerous huge marketing campaigns and adverts since 1988 and has a history of association with many high-performing athletes and ‘everyday athletes’.
The funny thing is it’s only after exiting my Nike career that I’ve embodied what it truly means and how it feels when you ‘Just do it’.
This week in the UK we’re mourning the loss of our longest ever serving monarch, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Anyone who knows me knows I held the Queen in high regard, both as a leader and a female icon.
But just what has the Queen and Nike’s ‘Just do it’ got in common?
They both want to get things done and make stuff happen. They both want to inspire, motivate and encourage us to live a great life. They both carry such strong brand identities that anyone who comes across them knows exactly what they stand for and represent. They’ve been consistent, purpose-led and familiar to most of us for a very long time.
So how exactly have I been embodying this motto since departing my 20 + year Nike career and why did I want to share it in this blog?
It’s simple, I want you to get clear on what you are all about and what you want to achieve to be the person you want to be. I want you to ‘Just do it’.
I know so many of you feel stuck with how things are in your life and wish they could be different, but for reasons that mainly include things like thinking you don’t have enough time, or you aren’t capable, or you’ll get around to it next Monday / next month / next year (pick which one you mostly use…!) you don’t do anything to make the changes you want.
You live like you have all the time in the world. You think you’ll do it when you’re in a different place, not thinking about all those lost days racing by before you finally or might get around to actually doing something that matters to you.
A couple of years ago I read a book that had a profound impact on me. I’ve talked about this book numerous times in my social media content and podcast interviews because I want others to feel the same impact. It’s a book that made me finally realise I couldn’t keep wishing for a different life. I had to make the life I wanted happen, or at least try. Because if you know the old saying “There are only two things certain in life, death and taxes” then you’ll know your time here is limited. Every day is the only day you get that day. Once it’s gone it’s gone.
Watching the news unfold last week about the death of Her Majesty made me reflect on how she would feel if she were looking back on her life, and how I would feel if I’d lived a life like hers. Take away the fact she was royalty and had all of the responsibilities she did in her role as The Queen! I know I’d feel immensely satisfied and privileged to have left such a legacy behind, but what I thought of as even more important than that was how proud and happy I would be to know I lived a full and healthy life to the grand old age of 96 years - riding my horses, driving my own car, walking unaided for most of those years making the most of my mobility and being able to work with all my faculties intact right up until the day I gracefully passed away. What a life to have lived.
Now I know you or I aren’t royalty and don’t have the support system around us that Her Majesty did, but that doesn’t mean we can’t go out of this world knowing we made sure our life was a great one that gave us so much joy, happiness and fulfilment.
So that’s why after reading Bronnie Ware’s ‘The Five Top Regrets of the Dying’ in 2020 in the midst of Lockdown 2.0, I realised I needed to start just doing it. I needed to stop being afraid of doing things that were what I really wanted to do with my life. I knew that I needed to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and start taking steps to build the life I so wanted to live and look back on when my end came with satisfaction, pride and absolute delight.
I’ve taken so many small and huge steps to get uncomfortable these past 2 years and the biggest learning I’ve had is that the more I tell myself to ‘Just do it’ the more comfortable it is to do these things. I trust myself that it’ll either work or it won’t, and if it doesn’t then I’ll just find a plan B, but at least I will know I tried. I won’t regret not knowing how it would have turned out because I chose to stay stuck and comfortable and unhappy.
It’s not morbid to think about the life you’re living and that one day it will be gone. If anything it’s empowering and inspiring, because it reminds you that this isn’t a practice run. There is no second act. It’s now or never.
And just like Her Majesty in her sketch with James Bond in 2012 for the London Olympics opening ceremony, sometimes you absolutely need to do the unexpected and enjoy your life the way you want to enjoy it so you can look back on so many great memories with satisfaction and pleasure.
If you’d like to find out more or read Bronnie Ware’s book take a look here.
If you want to ‘Just Do It’ please watch this 2020 Nike ad from their Dream Crazier campaign. Every single time I watch this it gives me goosebumps and brings tears to my eyes, but more than that, it 100% empowers me to believe I too can ‘Just Do It’.
Wish you could Just Do It?
Do you wish you could make the changes you want for a better life?
Are you always putting off change because you don’t think you have it in you?
If this is you, my FREE 5-day challenge is just what you need to help you WIN YOUR WORTH. In this challenge you’ll discover what is holding you back from living the life you want, and build the self-belief that you can achieve it.
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