Just Do It

Gonna steal a line from Nike–which does not sponsor, partner with, or support November Project at all. But they keep saying something important and regardless of whether they’ve copy written the phrase or not, it’s now the title of this blog.

Just Do It.

It’s not that far off from our familiar #JustShowUp, that you hear me, the Chrises and everyone with a mouth and a twitter feed say all the time. We tell you to just show up to workouts, to socials, to shovel crew, to everything! And it’s one of the most important things you can do in life–to show the fuck up and be present, engaged, invested, kind and open. It’s how we experience most of the wonder in the world and in ourselves and other people.

Just Do It is about choosing to leap forward, to drive relentlessly toward progress, to take risks, and to hope and believe that by doing it, good things will come out if it. Well I’ve heard that when we do shit, (not just TRY shit, as Yoda reminds us), there isn’t ever an outcome called a mistake. The result is either what we expected or the result is that we learned something.

This morning was the first super fucking cold day we’ve had in a long time and it was pretty sketchy yesterday with the amount of snow, but mostly ice, in the stadium. While the #shovelcrew did their thing last night, I kept reminding them that we might be doing it all for nothing, because the rain might all freeze into a giant sheet of glare ice. And we looked at the temperatures falling. There is almost nothing that makes you want to get out of bed less than really cold temperatures and no promise of running stadium stairs. But the crew that #justshowedup, well they just did it. Sure, they might have questioned themselves and the sanity of everyone else there, and they might have waffled over whether to get back in bed or truly just go… but they Just. Did. It. And I made a point to ask both the 5:30 and 6:30 groups this morning if anyone was pissed that they showed up. 100% happiness with their decision to just show up. Reminding us that when we simply choose to do it, even when the odds are challenging, the temps are literally freezing, the conditions might not be ideal and nothing is a guarantee, it can’t be a mistake.

So today was a victory of just doing the thing we call #freefitness. It was a victory of showing up.

And it forces me to remind all of you reading this, of something I believe in with my whole heart. We are all capable of more than we give ourselves credit for. George Woodward is about to have completed 10,000 pushups tomorrow and he said to me this morning, “I’d never have believed I could do 10,000 pushups!” But dude, he had never just done it. Someone else told me this morning, “I didn’t sleep well and I really wasn’t sure I could get myself out of bed to come, but I saw on IG we had stairs to run so I came. I never thought I’d feel like I do right now, I’m so happy I came.”

I don’t care at all if your thing is pushups, or a marathon, or a full tour, or learning how to skateboard. But what I love more than anything about November Project is that through all the crazy things we do, and the hard things we do, and the stuff that cracks us open a little bit and makes us stretch and grow–I have gotten to watch hundreds and hundreds of people begin to see, and believe in, the things they are capable of. The things they’ve maybe been capable of for a long time but just hadn’t explored it in themselves. It’s a powerful transformation, and one that I truly believe changes the world in more ways than we can comprehend. If the idea scares you a little, if it would stretch you or challenge you, and you’re still hesitating? My only advise, especially today, is to stop fucking around and just do it.*

See you at the cold hills on Friday–Summit Ave, Brookline.

Keep changing the world.

*Or as our friends at the north face actually say, #neverstopexploring. Never stop exploring you, my friends.