Just do it

For the past 32 years, the world of athletics has claimed Nike’s iconic slogan in the spirit of getting after it – putting your head down and doing what it takes to achieve the desired result. With the exception of New York City’s “I [heart] NY” campaign, no other three-word slogan has received such recognition.

Inspiration can be obvious like Rocky Balboa climbing the 72 steps leading up to the entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. But it often comes from unlikely places. 

“Just do it.”

If you think about it, this brief statement is exactly what’s needed when getting started. But let’s be sure we’re starting the right thing.

When I consider the slogan I think about staring at a computer screen, and the blank white sheet of digital paper of my laptop starting back before I take the first keystroke. For an athlete, it brings to mind the idea of training day after day in order to shape his body into what it needs to become.

And for a murderer, the words “just do it” could bring to mind the termination of life.

Gary Gilmore, a criminal during the 70s, gained worldwide recognition for demanding his death sentence for two murders he had admitted to committing in Utah.

He died on January 17, 1977 by firing squad after making the statement, “just do it.”

Eleven years later, Dan Wieden was inspired by Gilmore’s phrase and used it in Nike’s 1998 "Just Do It" commercial.