Why 'Just Do It' Doesn't Work | The Brain Science of Motivation

Hey, this is John Asperaf, New York Times best selling author of Having It All. And the answer and something that I've thought about lately has to do with the slogan, the amazing slogan Just do it by Nike. Now I'm sure you've heard it, and I love that slogan because it really motivates people to just get off their ass and do it. But there's also some elements of just doing it that most people don't think about. So for example, when somebody says, you know, I want to lose weight and I'm going to get on diet, I'm going to start exercising, there's a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens and the insula that is part of your motivational system of the brain. And when you get that enthusiastic desire to just do it, this part of your brain lights up and sends these feel good chemicals called dopamine, specifically, maybe even a little bit of adrenaline that makes you feel good and you get up and you actually start to just do it. But what happens to most people when they just do it, whether it's to lose weight, whether it's to really go and make some extra sales, whether it's to have the courage to go across the room and ask that guy if he, you know, like a drink, whatever it is, whenever we have that attitude of just do it, what I always end up thinking is this. Why is it that most people who just do it stop doing it within a day or two or three or four? And for that answer, I think you've got to really go to the brain research world and understand that in many cases, when we initially get this excited feeling and that dopamine is released, there also are some counter neurochemicals that play a part of just doing it. And so things like fear. What if I just do it and I fail? What if I just do it and I succeed and I can't maintain that level of performance or behavior? What if I just do it and I disappoint myself or somebody in my family that I love, like my children or my spouse or somebody at work? You see, one of the things that's critical in understanding is whenever we have a thought, it stirs up an emotion. And that emotion usually will cause us to move forward and behave in ways that line up with the just do it mindset and slogan. But it can also have a counter effect when we allow our old ideas, our old memories, our old results to spoil the joy of just doing it. So one of the things I'd love you to do is make a decision to just do it. Follow that amazing Nike slogan. And what I want you to also do is a simple little inner size. Let me share with you what this inner size is. It's a counter strategy to any of the negative self talk that may come up when you say yourself and when you even take action to just do it. And the counter thought that I want you to think about is what happens when I just do it and then I start having negative self talk like I don't want to do it today. What if I fail? What if I succeed? What if I disappoint myself Again, be aware of your dialogue that happens after you say just do it. Is your self talk positive? Is your self talk negative and limiting? And as you do that, go to your emotions, the feelings that are within you. Ask yourself is this just do it mindset exciting or is it causing fear? Is it moving me towards it or is it causing me to reassess and move back into my safety zone? And when you start to counterbalance the just do it with being aware of your thought patterns and your emotions and you come up with a counter strategy of what will you do when that negative self talk happens or that negative emotion starts to cause you to feel that you want to move away from just doing it? Then what I want you to do is come up with one or two things you'll say to yourself and one thing you will do to counter that negative or unpleasant thought pattern or emotion. So with that, pick one thing that you are going to go and do it because action is the key to your success and so pick that one thing and get off your you know what and just do it.