Happy New Year! 2025 is a few days old now. Are ya feeling different?
Starting at about 4:00 a.m. on December 26th, my inbox was flooded with the ‘make this your best year ever’ bunk. I’m betting yours was, too. Maybe it has something to do with the annual repetitive messaging. Or perhaps we’ve reached the stage where we’ve heard it so often that we simply roll our eyes. I wish there were a better way to kick off the new 365-day package.
I did learn something, though. That famous slogan began life in prison. In 1988, Nike needed a bold message to revive its brand. The adman, Dan Wieden, found inspiration in an unusual source: the chilling last words of convicted murderer Gary Gilmore. Facing a firing squad in 1977, Gilmore grimly said,
“Let’s do it.”
Wieden adapted this phrase into “Just Do It,” infusing it with determination and universal appeal. This blend of grit and simplicity resonated deeply. Nike became a cultural icon, and millions of consumers were inspired to face challenges and chase their dreams.
For me, 2025 is the tenth anniversary of the start of a new and better life. Most of you know I contracted a viral infection, which gifted me with two seizures, two strokes and a week in a coma. Life as I knew it was utterly upended, and truthfully, I had no real idea, let alone a plan for moving forward. Lying in the hospital bed, I knew just one thing. Whatever had happened to me was just an inconvenience. Nothing could keep me down. I had been a phoenix all my life, and this was no different. I would ‘just do it.’
Blind faith is a wonderful thing. It gives us clarity and focus and, most importantly, HOPE. It gets us out of the flight or freeze and into fight mode. It helps us inspire ourselves in our darkest moments. And it motivates us even more when tiny miracles begin to transpire.
I was recently reminded of the concept of blind faith. My latest podcast guest waxed poetic about continuous improvement.
Continuous improvement is a dull, wholly unsexy, and incredibly effective technique in business. Instead of generating massive payoffs with big, flashy, and highly publicized projects, it focuses on raising the bar for mundane activities. By removing the unnecessary and elevating the crucial in all processes, the organization makes even more positive metrics —profit, ROI, engagement, quality, and customer satisfaction.
And there’s always a downside
Continuous improvement has a significant flaw. It is NOT quick. It can take up to six months to even begin to see a bit of movement. And it can take up to a year before one knows there is traction. Real concrete, bankable results don’t usually materialize until after a year to eighteen months transpire. And I don’t need to remind us that humans have become outrageously impatient.
So, it was fascinating to have Peter explain the process of dealing with the morass of global government legislation coming down the pipes and satisfying the wide disparity in industry and stakeholder interests. Whether you believe in climate change or not, whether you support more government legislation or not, and whether you want to continue with the old ways of doing business in the foreseeable future, there are lessons for everyone in this latest series.
Here’s what I know for sure
2025 is another period of 365 new days available to us all. There will be more things that annoy us. And there will be a lot more chances for us to make changes. The most impactful place we can begin is with our perspective. That always comes first.
If you want to make a difference in 2025, you need two things. The first is to decide that you WANT to make a difference. The second is to Just DO it.
The just-do-it part can’t be done in a day, week, or month. It will take time. Listen to my conversation with Peter for some tips because continuous improvement is the way to go, personally or professionally. Blind faith is what keeps you clear and focused. And at the end of the day, the only way we can claim victory for anything is ‘Just DO it.’