Keep on showing up

First up: HAPPY NEW YEAR! Welcome to 2023, may this be YOUR BEST YEAR YET, may you overcome limiting beliefs and fear and step into your fullest potential, may you make dreams become reality and show others what’s possible if do get MOVING!

You know the drill: consistency is key!

However, what many people, my past self included, think is that if we are consistent we also need to do a perfect job and meet the set expectations 100%. (Hello fellow recovering perfectionists, I see you!).

But take another look at the drill, it does not say with one word that we also need to be perfect, that’s just something we apply to it (sort of a psychological contract that only we know of).

Let’s work again with the example of writing a book, in order to do so we need to consistently come back to the draft and keep writing. So what happens often enough is, that we combine the drill “consistency is key” with a very specific outcome like “write 1000 words every time”. If we don’t manage to hit that goal of 1000 words every time we sit down to write and we fall into the perfectionist trap, we feel bad about it and ashamed that we failed.

But consistency doesn’t mean perfect.

It means keeping on showing up, even if it means we write one sentence only.

It means we still show up to make progress every time, no matter how big or small, good or bad.

Judging the quality of the output can be a very saboteur thing to do. Of course, we also want to produce great output and make the effort and time investment worthwhile, but if we attach our sense of accomplishment to that only the likelihood of dropping the routine and not showing up is much higher than focusing on the process itself.

Celebrating showing up for yourself and your goals and any progress made in any shape or form is what keeps us going.

Make it a habit to show up, then improve the system and way you show up to make it even easier for you to do so and harder to drop it. Make it a non-negotiable, second nature, and something you simply just do.

And do not allow the perfectionist, over-achiever, or procrastinator (or other) saboteurs to get in your way.

The more attractive fun and light you make your task, in this case, writing, the more you celebrate also the little wins and keep on collecting proof that you can do this, and the less your saboteurs can come in to manipulate you.

And if they do, know that it is normal from time to time and the goal is to come back to it and not give up, because only then you have truly failed. The aim is to show up at least 51x out of 100x!

Call to Action: With the start of the new year and forming new years resolutions, have a think how you can make it as easy as possible to show up and do your thing.

If you want hands-on support to accelerate the learning curve, reach out and let’s see if we may be a good team!

NamaStay SHOWING UP

JD