"Principle 3: don't question it" Keeps Coming Up

As I've said many times over, I wrote my 10 Principles to help boil down lots of the advice out there into what I think is the set of essentials behind fitness success.  The third principle is "don't question it," and it reads like this:

don't question it
letting doubt in is the first step to failing. nike was right - just do it. don't start arguing with the rules of the diet or how you can't make it work because you love xyz. do you love your body? are you happy? really? obviously, you can do and be better, or you wouldn't be here. same for exercise. if you stop and think about whether you have it in you, you will find reasons not to have it in you. if you just do it, you get it done. stop questioning, and start doing.

Over the past two days, this kept coming up all over the place.  It started with a great blog post from Dai Manual, a really inspiring guy I follow on Twitter with a similar back story to mine (though he was overweight for a shorter period of time, and is ridiculous physical condition today).  He was posting about pushing yourself through those moments of doubt, and how you will feel better later.  He posted this great Bruce Lee quote in his post:

Then, when I went to respond to the post, I noticed the first comment, with another great quote that gets at the idea:

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. You can act to change your life; the procedure, the process is its own reward. 

– Amelia Earhart

 Really powerful stuff.

OK, moving on from Dai's blog, I was in a meeting with my direct reports at work, and we always close with a fun/quirky question or fact about each other. This time, the question was to write a fortune for a fortune cookie.  I don't have the exact words, but one of the people on my team had a quote that was about the same idea.  She talked about action being a greater endeavor than thinking of action.  I of course used my new-found Bruce Lee quote.

In another meeting, we were tackling a thorny corporate issue, and had to make a change to handle the situation.  Each option was difficult, and a few people had push back for each option.  The thing is, we have to take one of them because the status quo is no longer viable.  We can't just question the whole idea of doing.  We have to get on with it.

Then the day ended with me noticing a photo on Dai's Facebook page.

Totally.  If you're wording, the J stands for 'Just', the D for 'Do' and the I for 'It'.  The F is self explanatory.  Though, if you're not into swearing, it could mean 'Fantastically'.  That works, too.  So does 'Ferociously', but it doesn't really fit with the 'Calm' part, does it?