Curious about how Nike came up with their catchy tag line ‘Just do it’? Well, let me share a bit. The slogan was coined in 1988 at an advertising agency meeting and the founder of Wieden + Kennedy agency, Dan Wieden credited his inspiration for ‘Just do It’ to Gary Gilmore’s last words ‘Let’s do It’. In 1976 Gilmore robbed and murdered two men in Utah and was executed by a firing squad. They asked him if he had any final words and he said ‘Let’s do it’. However after much creative thinking, Dan Wieden changed the words to ‘Just do it’ and presented the tagline to the sportswear powerhouse and well as they always say the rest is history (https://www.dezeen.com). I really like this tagline and think a lot of people also love it. It has survived for so long because it is not only catchy but it is powerful.
To be honest, I’m not really a sportswoman and I don’t wear much Nike products but my older brother is a Nike person; there is something about that tagline which resonates with people from all walks of life. These three words allow you to make the meaning personal to you.
I wanted to share about this because I’ve been having a lot of conversations with people who keep telling me “you know Bongs, I want to do that and this but I don’t have the money, no one is giving me the opportunity and I simply don’t have the energy, etc” the list is endless. The danger with this is that, since people feel that they don’t have the opportunities or the energy, they give up altogether and end up not wanting to do anything, and that my friend is a death warrant for your dreams. I completely understand when people say this because I go through that too, but I’ve also learnt a powerful principle in the process.
I’ve learnt to just do something, no matter how small or big, recognised or not, it may not even be the ultimate thing I want but I’ve learnt the principle of just sowing seeds with the understanding that I may never know where my harvest will come from. Recently, I was asked to share something at a gathering and I recited the following words I had read “the less you do, the less you want to do and the more useless you become”.
The invert of that will be “when you do, the more you going to want to do, the more useful you become”. Reality is, we don’t always feel like doing the things we meant to do, but when we fight within ourselves and ensure that we actually take the first step we gather more strength. Sometimes remaining consistent and being successful has nothing to do with passion but everything to do with action.
The authors of the book “The Daniel Plan – 40 days to a healthier life” said it best when they shared “What you do with your body sets the tone for everything else. Physical health influences your mental health, your spiritual health, your emotional health, your relational health, and even your financial health. How many times have you read a book, heard a message or attended an event that motivated you to make some change, but then you didn’t have the physical energy to do it? Instead, you lay down on your couch and watched TV. A major motivation for us to be physically healthy is that we want the energy and alertness to make other changes in our lives”.
Some people always comment about how they love reading PenTheVision columns and ask how I come up with some of the content. To be honest there are times when I don’t feel like writing, you find that I am discouraged about the challenges in my life, but as soon as I gather enough physical strength, I stand up, grab the laptop, open a blank page, pray and start writing. As soon as I start it’s like a flood of ideas begin to saturate my mind. I also fundamentally believe ideas are attracted to action.
So my enjoy life tip is this, start small, gather enough physical energy and Just do it. Maybe you need to add some sort of exercise in your life or tweak your diet a bit to ensure you are physically alert and able to do whatever it is you need to do, then do that. If you need to study, please wake up, sit up straight and grab that book. If you have to write a book, a proposal, a report, a message, a lesson; whatever it is, grab your laptop or diary and just start penning your thoughts. In the insurmountable things you need to accomplish trust me when I say, strength follows action.