2020 Takeaways — Just Show Up

Showing up is half the battle.  Honestly?  It might even be more.

Those negative thoughts, like how is this going to get done?  Am I really qualified?  I have so far to go… they would hold me back from a lot, including showing up.  But showing up is so much of the how!

 One of my dreams (it was kind of a goal but I wasn’t really taking action on it, and dreams without a plan or action stay dreams) was to get more fit last year.  If I’m honest, it was a dream for many of the last few years.  About a month ago, I realized a lot of my clothes were fitting loosely and I had more muscle definition.

What happened?  I had committed to working out 5-6 days a week; 5 days was the goal, 6 days was the stretch goal.

(I highhhhly recommend having both a doable goal and an aspirational stretch goal for any goal - I've found it's the perfect amount of flexibility that's helped me solve the problem of having goals that either discourage me because I keep falling short or hold me back because I'm not really pushing myself.   I stay so much more motivated because I'm getting the positive and affirming feelings from hitting a goal but I don't get to slack off after I do because I have something further I'm reaching for!).

Part of this commitment I'll talk about more, because it was coming from the right 'why', self-care, and being process-oriented, but it was a commitment I made and stuck to (I also highly recommend taking your commitments to yourself seriously).  Whatever it looked like, I was going to just do something for my body 5-6 days each week.  Some days, it was only a 15 minute workout (I think I even had a few 10 minutes here or there!) and some days, I had little energy to put into the workout, so it was a really light workout.  But in the past, if I was short on time or energy, I wouldn’t show up at all.

But it's in the showing up where the magic happens.  Once you start... well even scientifically, an object in motion tends to stay in motion.  I can't tell you how many times whether for a workout, cleaning the apartment, or writing, when I just showed up to work at it, I ended up doing so much more than I even thought I had in me.  And when you show up consistently?  It adds up.  What you did each time you showed up, as well as the resilience & motivation you get from showing up and just doing something.

When you're finding yourself resistant to showing up, analyze why... are you coming from an all or nothing mindset? Are you doubting yourself instead of trusting you have everything you need in you to do what you're meant to do (you do!)?  Are you forgetting it's in small, consistent steps where progress happens?

Try showing up, see what happens.