Show Up Fully

Now that we have shown up, let’s look at how we show up. It is one thing to show up physically, but then what? Take a nap and collect attendance points? Or, fully invest ourselves mentally and energetically, be all in and show up fully? Which do you choose? And Why?

Easy Out

I’ll be the first to raise my hand on this one. How many times have you given a half-hearted effort with something and then failed, saying to yourself “oh, well, I didn’t try my best, so that’s why I failed”? It’s an easy out. Nothing lost, but nothing gained. Ego and pride won, but what did you accomplish?

Ouch.

That’s called self-sabotage.

I did it with my music as a kid. If I purposely didn’t practice that much, then that’s why I wasn’t so good at my lesson/audition/performance. It wasn’t a reflection of my true abilities, and therefore a reflection of me.

I did it with procrastination in school. If I didn’t write a paper until the night before it was due, that’s why I didn’t get a top grade. Not because my writing wasn’t good.

These were ways to avoid feeling personally judged, ways to avoid feeling like a failure.

It was also a path to nowhere.

What If?

What if instead we chose to fully invest ourselves. Try. Be all in. Show up fully. Take the risk. Who cares what other people think? If someone is so caught up in caring, then they are stuck at the Easy Out. Show them the way!

So what if you fail? That is the path to learning.

Two Ideas From James Clear

Idea One:

What if we throw away the scary, negative feelings that we have associated with the word “failure” and replace it with “learning”? It changes it, right? Learning isn’t scary, it is fun!

Failure = Learning

Idea Two:

Truth! Nobody is rooting for you to fail! Someone might be rooting for someone else to win, but that isn’t at all the same thing as rooting for you to fail.

As a lifelong performing musician, I know the feeling of wanting to do my very best in front of others. I wanted to do my best and the audience wanted to hear me do my best. But, ultimately, these were minor moments in the grand scheme of things – small moments in a big world. Realizing this helped relieve the high-stress pressure to perform.

Visualize

In college, a period of high performance pressure, I developed a visualization technique that I’d use on stage right before each performance. I would zoom way out and picture other things happening in the world at the exact same moment – babies being born, people sleeping, someone arranging flowers, wars being fought, pillow fights. Things from the epic to the mundane, all to help me see that my moment on stage was only a blip among many. This gave me the space to breathe, settle, show up fully and do my best. The world is big and I am small.

Show Up Fully

Can you do it? Take the risk, set aside ego, be all in?

What’s the cost of showing up only physically? What’s the cost of showing up halfway? What’s the cost of showing up fully?

Show Up Fully

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