The Eastern Way: Fundamental #4 – Just Do It
Bashir Ansari is a Loan Servicing Representative at Eastern Funding. He has been at the company for over a year. He is a native of Buffalo, New York, and has been in the banking industry for 5 years.
Just do it: Take personal responsibility for making things happen. Respond to every situation by looking for how we can do it, rather than explaining why it can’t be done. See issues through their completion.
Just Do It.
Thanks to Nike, the above saying is an engrained slogan not only in athletics, but in our society at large. It’s almost fitting I received this fundamental, as anyone who has seen me around the office may attest that I am a fan of Nike (and their “loud” colors). However, more than the product, “just doing it” is a simple and effective way to approach our careers and life in general.
As a kid, Saturday mornings were designated clean-up day at our house. My siblings and I would come up with any and every excuse to either a.) figure out a way get out of the house (we were never so happy to go to a practice), or b.) pass the chores on to one another. We spent a ton of time arguing and procrastinating only for the jobs to be left undone. One day, my dad told us “you know, if you all put as much effort into doing your chores as you do into figuring out how not to do them, you would be done a whole lot faster.”
Looking back, it was definitely a “light-bulb” moment. As a kid, I don’t know how much we listened and applied, but he was right. And it has stuck with me to this day.
Most people over-think. We assess and hypothesize results over and over again. It’s human nature to be cautious, but we must be careful to not let our caution and trepidation turn into procrastination. It is often much easier to figure out reasons not to undertake a project, rather than to just take it by the horns and knock it out. Don’t spend hours, or even minutes, talking yourself out of a task. Those are valuable minutes that could be spent pushing toward the goal!
One more anecdote to close:
As a basketball coach, you’re used to seeing kids make mistakes. Often times, they have a penchant for explaining what happened, or why it happened. One time, my assistant coach told our team “don’t give me excuses, give me solutions.” This was a mantra he used as a construction project manager. I had never heard it before, but it made perfect sense. When you break that phrase down, it all boils down to one thing: just doing it. As we progress in our lives and careers, let’s always remember that what’s most important is our actions, not the time we spend thinking about them.
Thank you and enjoy your week!
