Just Show Up & Start

I didn’t sleep altogether too well last night. It wasn’t a bad night per se, just an overactive one where my brain was concerned. My dreams were rapid fire, the dream version of myself could barely catch his breath as he moved from one ridiculous scene to the next, and this seemed to translate to my real life self, as I found myself quite restless and therefore spectacularly groggy when my alarm dutifully did its job. Last night, I had planned on how I’d wake up and have a day so productive that it’d be award worthy. I was going to wake up, spend some undistracted time with Jesus, hit the gym, and by 8:30am, latest, I’d be settling into my day. I went to bed early enough, and I knew that this would be the day they’d sing praises of my productivity at the end of the day.

Well, my alarm went off at 5:30am and we were off to the races! Except, we weren’t. I snoozed that thing and snoozed it hard! Finally, with immense difficulty, I lazily extracted myself from my bed…at 6:30am. “Waking up early,” my first check box of the day, and I had already dropped the ball. The worst part is, I felt no better rested than I had at 5:30 when I'd originally cracked my eyes open. So, I was an hour late to my day, and not nearly as rested as I'd romanticized I’d be when I went to bed. It was looking less and less likely that any awards were in sight.

I spent some time with Jesus. I did. I wouldn’t say it was undistracted though, as my sluggish mind struggled to run the motor of my brain enough to comprehend what my Bible was saying. Several times I found myself reading the same sentence over and over. Still, 20 minutes later, I had somehow struggled my way through one chapter of Lamentations, a book in the Bible that is, as the name outright suggests, not a joyful thrilling read. I prayed for grace and trudged on into the rest of my already-behind-by-an-hour day. It was time for the gym. 

Ah yes, the gym. The place where you pay a subscription to someone else in order to sculpt your own body. The place where you willingly embrace the hurt. The place where physical strength, or the lack of it, is unapologetically, painfully, and sometimes embarrassingly revealed. That place. That place, I didn’t want to go today. See, I was still tired from my poor night’s sleep. I was still sore from working out…3 days ago. And let’s face it, you don’t go to the gym or perform any workout for immediate results. It’s the long game you’re after every time you show up. This was my frame of mind as I debated with myself whether to go or not. One day couldn’t possibly matter in the grand scheme of the next decade, could it? My body needed to feel perfectly rested in order to perform, correct? I could use that hour to catch up and even out the scales on the hour I’d lost, right? Right?!

Then I remembered a certain company’s slogan, "Just do it". I remembered that the proverbial journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. I remembered something my mother repeatedly told me growing up (I clearly have had problems for a long time), “the hardest thing to do is the thing that you haven’t attempted to do yet.” I remembered that as a coach, I often tell other people, “you don’t have to have 100% to give. Just give 100% of the 50% that you have.” All these slogans, sayings, quotes, are excellent…when they’re not directed at you. They’re great mottos…for other people. They’re perfect motivators…when motivating the next person. But, thankfully, I did something right, I decided I’d honor all those and JUST.SHOW.UP. Just show up, start attempting to do the thing I needed & wanted to do, and go from there. 

So, I showed up at the gym. And the most amazing thing happened! I ran into Arnold Schwarzenegger and he told me he was proud of me for showing up in spite of how I felt. Ok, that’s not true. He didn’t really say that. Also, he wasn’t there. But something amazing did happen. I worked out. True to form and thought, I was tired at the start. But the act of showing up and starting greased the wheel, and I performed one rep, then another, then a set was done. And then another set was done. I didn’t have 100% to give, but I gave 100% of the 50% that I had available. Set after set, and the hour was done. And I went home, proud of myself that in spite of not feeling like it, and maybe having a (not) legitimate reason to skip the workout, I showed up anyway.

I have found that life in general seems to operate like that. Don’t wait for optimal conditions in order to act. Don’t plan the thing into oblivion while telling yourself that you’re making progress because you ought to plan it perfectly in order to execute it efficiently. Don’t put off for tomorrow what you ought to do today. Just show up. Just start doing the thing. An incredible principle of life is that for the most part, an object in motion stays in motion. When you show up and overcome inertia enough to start doing, sustaining momentum kind of takes care of itself. So, whether the desire is to lose weight, get stronger, get out of debt, save money, become a better spouse/parent/friend, start a business, fill in the blank with whatever valuable desire you have, you’ll have to start somewhere. The start doesn’t need to be novel or grand, it seldom is, if ever. Find the smallest action that leads to doing the thing, and just do that. And see how that action will lead to the next, which will lead to the next, and so forth, and before you know it, you’ll be a bonafide doer! I know it isn’t nearly that simple all the time. But a lot of time, it just is. And know this though, the opposite is unfortunately also true. An object at rest, stays at rest. 

Just show up and start. The rest will take care of itself. 

p.s. If you'd like some help putting together a plan for Physical and or Financial fitness, fill out the short form at the bottom of this page and I'll schedule a free session for us to chat! I'd love to talk with you! Also, I think you're a rock star!!

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