Could the famous “just do it” advice be the key to creative success?
The famous Nike tagline of “Just do it” is a sensationally successful marketing slogan. Although its advice is targeted to encourage you to pursue athletic and physical activities, the blunt and almost impatient tone of the phrase can easily be applied to anything you want to do, or know you should do, without any fluff. Just put on your running shoes and go for that run. Just open your laptop and write those 1,000 words. Just set that alarm and meditate before your busy day. Just do it, no excuses.
But can this adage help with pursuing creativity and overcoming creative barriers? Can “just doing it” help you achieve creative success?
For the purpose of this article, let’s define creative success in terms of personal fulfillment. Of course you can use monetary, financial or other metrics to define your creative success, but I think it’s better to chase after the feeling of personal fulfillment from doing something that you feel called to, even if you resist it. The mind is usually the biggest barrier to any success, whether it’s creative or not.
So let’s get back to the question: can “just doing it” help you achieve creative success?
The infamous Cubist painter, Pablo Picasso once said “to know what you’re going to draw, you have to begin drawing.” That’s basically paraphrasing the “just do it” slogan, but the way I interpret Picasso’s quote is that if you want to draw something, you need to sit at your desk with pencil and paper and start drawing and see where it takes you – don’t spend all your time planning and overthinking the project at the cost of potentially never even starting it. Of course in many instances someone may have a vision in mind and have an idea of how it should be presented in the world, and that’s completely fine, but what I think Picasso was getting at was to not get so attached to what the vision could look like, but to actually start creating something to see where it can go. Maybe the exact image or feeling you had in mind will never be executed exactly the way you envisioned it, but maybe the act of trying to execute it will take you somewhere else completely novel.
Stephen King, the famous and incredibly productive horror/thriller novelist, has spent a lot of time reflecting on the process of his craft; he even authored a non-fiction book about his personal creative writing process, On Writing. Whereas the “just do it” principle implies that you should just do whatever it is that you’re struggling to do regardless of any barriers you face, Stephen King has a writing ritual and dedicated physical space for where he writes. Although his ritual was refined over the years and works well for him, his number one rule is to just show up every morning at his desk, as if he had come into an office where a boss breathes down his neck, and writes. His number one rule is to just do the writing, even if it stinks. It’s like what people say about getting more fit – at least get yourself to the gym, and once you’re there you may as well get on that treadmill and do something. And apparently no one has ever regretted a workout, but they’ve regretted not working out. Take that as you please.
This idea of just showing up and just doing whatever it is you’re resisting can also be described as the “do something principle”, as coined by the blogger and writer Mark Manson. In his bestselling non-fiction no-bullshit personal development book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*CK, Manson describes this principle as starting from action, any kind of action. The action then leads to inspiration, which then leads to motivation, which will help you continue taking action, and lead you into a cycle of motivated action. So if you make the effort of taking the action to go to the gym and workout, you’ll start losing weight and feeling fitter (read: inspiration!) and this will then further motivate you to continue coming back to the gym. So can the “do something principle” apply to your creativity? Give it a try. Write that chapter or take that dance class and see if that inspires and then motivates you to keep going. But you have to just do it.
One obstacle that jumps out at me when I think of the “do something principle” is the inevitable plateau. What happens when you stop losing weight even though you continue going to the gym? What happens when your paintings start resembling each other and your writing feels repetitive? Can continuing to take action continue inspiring and motivating you?
Maybe it can. But I think at some point, if you’re not changing anything and just taking the same action over and over again, things can become a bit dull and you can find yourself in a rut. Doing the same thing over and over and getting the same result while expecting something different is the definition of insanity. So what’s the most useful thing to do if (well, most probably when) you reach a plateau or get stuck in a rut? Change things up! Take a break, travel, read something you’d never normally read, try food you’ve never had before, do anything that makes you step outside of your comfort zone. But don’t use that as an excuse to put off the work; you have to come back to the work and just do it, even if you don’t feel you’re ready. It’s a fine balance to achieve – just doing it through discipline and taking a break to do something new without letting it become a source of procrastination.
So can “just doing it” help you achieve creative success? I don’t have any concrete research to be able to give you a definitive answer, and like most things that are interesting in life, it’ll never be a black and white response. But from my observations and studies of successful creatives and from my struggles with doing my own work, just sitting down and doing it is better than not doing it. Even if what I create isn’t up to my expectations, I know I spent that time practicing my craft and I have something to show for it, no matter how bad it might be and if it never sees the light of day. I also know that you need to give yourself a break and space to experience something different that you can then bring into your work in some shape or form. But it can be tricky to identify, let alone admit, when taking that break becomes procrastination or even, god forbid, a limiting belief that then stops you from coming back to the work.
Just doing it and getting on with the work can definitely propel you into improvement and success, but it can also burn you out, exhaust you out of ideas and joy for the work itself. On the other hand, taking a break and throwing yourself into something new and different can rejuvenate you and spark new ideas, but it can also cause you to put off the work. Reflect on your actions and try to understand where you are sitting on that spectrum and be honest with yourself. You will know what you need to do next. And it might have to be to “just do it”.