The Art Of Showing Up

I didn’t feel like writing today — I really didn’t. Today, writing feels like such an effort. It’s not going very well… at all. The sentences aren’t coming together how I want them to and this post, in it’s current state, is looking rather terrible.

The paragraph above is what I wrote yesterday, but today is a new day. Thankfully, this writing session is going much smoother and I feel like everything is coming together a lot better. What a difference a day can make!

One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the fact that I have showed up and tried my best. Even after yesterdays terrible writing session, I still made progress, nonetheless.

It’s got me thinking, maybe the only thing what will ever matter is the ability to show up and try.

Showing Up Is Hard

If showing up was easy, everyone would do it. But showing up day in day out to do whatever it is you want to do is hard. Really hard. It’s what Steven Pressfield in the War Of Art would refer to as ‘resistance’: a powerful, invisible force which prevents us from doing the things we so long to do. ‘Resistance’ may be preventing you from writing a book, starting your own business, or even taking the trip you have always wanted to go on. The list is endless, but ‘resistance’ can be beaten. It can be beaten by showing up day in, day out, even when you really don’t feel like it.

Take Ryan Holiday (one of my favourite authors), for example. In the past 10 years, he has managed to write more than 10 books, an amazing output to say the least. Ryan only writes for around 2–3 hours a day, which is nothing too crazy at all. When asked about the secret to his success in writing, he said ‘There’s no secret. It’s just steady day, after-day work’.

Yes, things are sometimes hard; and yes, sometimes things won’t go as planned, but the person who shows up the most is ultimately going to be the winner. Just keep showing up, because you’ll thank your future self for it later.