Just Do It

Just Do It by Steve McIlwain

Hubs here.

Christmas came and went.  New Years came and went.  2011 is here.  Now we are faced with a new year of opportunities and challenges.  For some the New Year is a blank canvas of possibilities.  For some the New Year is daunting.  I find myself bouncing back and forth between the two.  I like the excitement of planning and setting new goals.  I am energized at the thought of doing things I have never done before and accomplishing goals I would like to achieve, but at times I also feel a sense of anxiety.  In some ways I feel like I barely made it through last year, so the thought of trying to accomplish more in the coming year is somewhat overwhelming.

My thought process through this stressful back and worth usually leads me down a similar path each time.  At first I feel overwhelmed and wrestle with the thought of trying to do something I have never done before.  In my mind I struggle with pushing through the anxiety and not giving up.  Next, I go through a period of weighing my different options.  Do I have to accomplish this goal this year?  Is there something else I would rather do?  Should I increase or decrease the scope of the goal?  Finally, I end up letting go of the thought for the time being and allowing some time to pass before making a decision.

My little process works for me … well kind of.   With my system, things tend to easily fall off the radar.  It is easy to put off something for the moment and end up forgetting about it for years.  Something that may be important gets lost in the shuffle, and in the end, it never happens.

Having observed this phenomenon in myself lately, I have decided I am tired of pushing things off that I actually need and want to get done. It is time for change..  Through months of pondering my normal mode of operation, three ground breaking words have popped into my head helping me to start getting things done without feeling overwhelmed: “Just do it.”

“Just do it” keeps playing over and over in my head … really original, right?  But when I repeat that phrase in my head, it is not simply about reciting Nike rhetoric. It is like I am hearing it for the first time. Perhaps Nike has engrained this marketing message in my head through years (well, decades at this point) of (awesome) commercials, or it might be that this message speaks to a fundamental desire for motivation at the heart of human life. Either way, it is an honest and simple call to action.

The reason I am writing about my new brilliant, life-changing slogan is because it is helping me be a better husband.  I tend to spend my days thinking about grand plans of “world’s best husband” magnitude and end up passing up tons and tons and TONS of opportunities to do smaller, but still very meaningful, things for Ash.  Write her a note, take out the trash, surprise her with a Frosty (Ash loves Frosties), help with the laundry, buy her flowers, give her a massage, make dinner, empty the dishwasher…the list goes on forever, and I mean forever.  There are so many things I can do that require a small amount of effort but go a long way in letting Ash know that I love her. That’s where three little words are helping me take tangible steps towards being a better husband.

In a lot of ways, this isn’t groundbreaking stuff.  “Just do it” has been around for 20 years, and a lot of you are probably already doing the above mentioned.  But in what ways can you take simple steps to be a better spouse?  The ones listed above are the very basics, and you can have some fun being creative and finding simple yet unique ways to express your love.  You can always do just a little more to show your sweetie that you love him/her, brighten his/her day, or do something to help him/her out.

In the New Year, I encourage you to make it a personal goal (it’s one of mine for 2011) to be a better spouse by looking for simple ways to show your love to your honey-buns.  When you get an idea, don’t think about it … “Just do it.”

Copyright © 2011, Foundation Restoration.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No reproduction allowed without written permission from Foundation Restoration and/or the author.