Success Comes to Those Who Show Up

For most people, they don't realize that the key in life is that no matter what you start, just start something that matters. I thought I'd take on a big topic. I'm always asked this time of year, and that is, Brendan, what should I just start with? You know, I've got all these ideas in my head about a business I could start or something I can do at work, or a new direction I go in my life, but I don't know which one to choose. You know, how do I just pick one and start? There's so many ideas. What should I do? And of course, being a coach, I reflect back to them. Well, you just kind of answered that when you said it, didn't you? You got to pick one. You got to start. For most people, they don't realize that the key in life is that no matter what you start, just start something that matters. See, most people don't start a new idea or dream because they really are just embarrassed to be seen starting small. They don't want to appear incompetent, unready, immature, unskilled. That idea that, oh, maybe I don't know how to do this makes me unworthy. And so we stop, or we actually do start. We start learning and we learn and we learn and we study and we study and we study and we never execute. We just get in this forever study piece thinking that we're great learners. But everyone who's ever studied anything about adult education and adult learning realizes that until one is in motion attempting things, learning actually suffers. That you can read and read and study and watch YouTube videos and listen to podcasts and podcasts and podcasts, but you're not ultimately going to learn at a breakthrough level until you do, until you take action, until you see what's working, until you adapt from there. So what should I do first? Number one, start. Start building. Start doing something. Start write. You want to be a writer? Start writing. Don't read 10 more books about writing a book. Start writing a book every day, 30 minutes towards it. Then what? Well, after you started something, now it's time to develop a routine at something so that you can keep working on it. You don't have to be perfect. You have to be in motion to perfect. And that routine, that might be your daily or your weekly or your monthly rhythm to it. It might be a routine you establish with your team or with your family so you can maintain it or sustain it. Third, you gotta measure. Is this thing something that you are enjoying? Is it a passion? Is it a deep Interest, do you need to adjust and keep trying or learning? Do you need a new mentor? Is this just not it for you? And you can just quit without any guilt because like, this is just not the thing. Or if it seems to be going well and it is the thing, next step is always super logical scale, do it better, develop greater mastery, reach more people with it, whatever it is. But I'm here to tell you, striver, you just gotta get in the arena, you just gotta get in the game. You just gotta take the steps, you just have to execute. That's the thing. There's so much people, there's so many people who talk and talk and talk and talk, and what they're really doing is talking themselves into worthy. They're hoping that one day they're worthy enough and somebody will give them the permission to go for it. They're like, ah, if someone could just tell me, but forgive me and let me share something someone already has told you, you wouldn't even be asking the question, should I start this? Should I do this? Unless some whisper was in your ear, or your heart, or your soul, or your spirit, or from the divine that urged you to even contemplate it and ask it in the first place. I've coached people from all walks of life, from countries around the world and tons of different careers, missions, opportunities. And I can share with you one thing, all the people who tend to say, can I just do this one thing? Should I just do this? I'm not sure. Should I choose option A, B or C? Almost always with what they're talking about, that option A, B or C, the reason they're going to get stuck is they think they have to do all of them at the same time. I'm like, sure. They're like, no, no. Well, it must be A, B or C, right? I'm like, yeah, sure, which one? And they're like, well, I'm contemplating all of them. I'm like, oh, great, so they're all worthy. Well, yeah, they're all worthy. And you're interested in all of them and you're passionate about all of them, but you can't take them all at the same time. No, right. That's right. Okay, so pick one. Well, what if B was better than A? Okay, well, you started B, you discovered it wasn't the real passion, it wasn't the real thing. Now you let B go and you start A. That's it. That's as simple as it gets. Everything else is the worry. We spin ourselves in, the fears of uncertainty, the Sense of inadequacy. At the end of the day, if you haven't written it out somewhere there this year in your journal, if you haven't capitalized the word, go ahead and type it today in capitalization. S, T, A, R, T, start. Just choose one, pick it, work it, work it, work it, then evaluate. Is it working for me? Do I like it? Should I adjust? Do I need more help? Do I need more mentorship? Do I actually have to study more or just work a little bit more at it to keep honing at it? Almost everything that ever becomes a mastery level contribution takes years and years and years. It doesn't mean that we can't be more swift or more quick. It doesn't mean that we can't have mentors who speed us up. Obviously, my whole career is based on that. But the reality is, most of the time, it's a mental permission switch that you need to give yourself. Now, I don't know where you're coming in this conversation today, but I do know something here in growth day, if you're having this conversation, if you're still listening to this, there's something you know, you need to start. Just go into your journal today and just start writing about it. This is what I want to start. This is why I want to do it. This is the thing I'm going to focus on first at this stage. After six months or nine months or a year or whatever, I'll evaluate. Is it right for me? Is it working well, I'll measure it, I'll make sure I enjoy it. And then I'll say, well, do I keep going or do I change something else? It's okay, striver that you might be a person in transition. It's okay. You don't have to do everything in the future related to everything you did in the past. You can start fresh. You can try new things. You have a long, beautiful, hopefully abundant and joyful and healthy life in front of you. And so take advantage of that. You know, so many people have started over in their 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and we all think that we have to just be the same. Life is about change. Life is about evolving. You know, personal development on 101. You've heard it a million times. Life is about becoming. That requires us growing into the best of who we are. That requires us to keep finding more and more and more what's right for us. What's the next right action of integrity for us. That's why I'm hopeful for you. That's why I'm excited about this year ahead for you because I just know that you're going to start things. Some of them are going to stick and you're going to love them. You're going to pursue them. You'll develop mastery or scale at it, and some of them aren't going to be the right thing. And you'll spend three, four, five, six months. But you know what? At least you tried. You gave it an effort. You're not going to risk that horrible feeling at the end of your life. Oh, I always had this thought, but I never even started it. Let's end the regret, let's find the boldness, and let's start what is necessary for us to live an extraordinary life. There's choices of things to do that are more authentic to you. Choose those things that are authentic. Go. Give them effort and focus and a good honest try. Stay disciplined and diligent at them. Measure them. And if they don't end up being the right thing, hey, time to switch. Time to pivot. Time to transition. The truth is, you've done it before. You've actually pivoted and transitioned many times in your life. You've had so many changes that you have survived and become better out of. You will do the same thing out of this one. So no more fear, just optimism. Just readiness. It's your time. It's a perfect time of year to step out anew. Give yourself a boldness to try a new project. Work towards a new dream on the side. Ask for some help. Do something that you feel will enliven you. You have full permission to do that. Hey guys, it's Brandon.

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Today's topic is one of the classics, one of the greats in personal development. The topic of Showing up in the last couple years, there's been times for all of us when we didn't show up for our dreams. We didn't show up and practice good habits. We didn't show up when it was time to work hard. We didn't show up when we had a good down day, we didn't show up when somebody needed us. What's up with that? Well, I always think it's a good midweek conversation. So let's get into it. Four simple ideas about showing up. The first one, I always tell people, you don't have to keep up to show up. I tell athletes all this about this all the time. When you're starting out at the next level of athleticism, you don't have to be able to keep up with everybody who's already been in the pros for longer than you. As an example, you just got to keep showing up. The greats. It's not that they were immediately greater than other people. It's that they tended to show up at more practices, show up at more games, show up more morning workouts, show up more consistently than other people. And then over a period of time, suddenly they were keeping up and then they were passing and excelling. But often in our non athletic life we forget that, well, you know, she's a better communicator than me, so why even try? Well, you got to show up, communicate, try, do the post, say the thing, raise your hand, pitch your idea, and you got to do it over and over and over and over again. And one day you're as good, or at least you're better than you were. You have to show up. You know, if you don't show up, then you're just leaving your personal growth and your competency to random reactions of life. You're letting life's randomness drive you. And in that way, if your growth is always tied to randomness, you'll always be caged in mediocrity. You gotta show up even if you can't keep up. Second big thing I think is important is you don't have to be perfect. You don't be perfect for yourself. I mean, the first idea here was you don't have to keep up to show up. That's about other people. This one is about you, your expectations, how hard you are on yourself. You know, well, I don't want to try it because I won't like how I feel doing something I'm not competent at. I don't want to show up and try it because I don't want to feel inadequate. I don't want to show up and do it now because it won't be completely perfect or I won't be completely ready or it won't turn out the way I hope, and I'll feel discouraged. Often people who say they are perfectionist are truly just trapped in fear. They're actually not even following what they believe that they are. Because if they were a perfectionist, they would realize that the root term there is to perfect. And the only way to perfect something is to do it over and over and over again, even when it's not good, so that you work on it and ultimately you continue perfecting it. A real perfectionist is someone who is actually doing the thing already. They did start. They didn't say, I'm fearful of starting because it's not perfect. They started sloppy as a hot mess, got in motion, got it going and perfected it and improved it. Iterated, tested, tried again, made it better, kept going, kept showing up. Third, this is important. If the first two, by the way, were, you know, don'ts. You know, don't feel like you have to keep up to show up and don't feel like you have to be perfect, this one's a do. So the third idea is do realize you need a habit and a schedule. You won't just suddenly feel like showing up to practice one day. You've got to schedule practice. You won't suddenly feel one day like writing the book. Well, maybe you will, but you won't feel it day after day after day. You got to schedule it. You won't feel like improving at the gym. You got to schedule it. You won't feel consistently like you're supposed to be a great leader. You gotta schedule those meetings, schedule that time to learn, schedule that time to read books, listen to podcasts, talk with other leaders. You gotta schedule it. Showing up cannot be left to random impulse. It must be something that is on the calendar. It lives in the schedule. Last idea for you today. You know, if you want to really show up in life, you got to enlarge your vision and you got to have a desire for an extraordinary life. People who show up consistently with real discipline, they want to be extraordinary. They've allowed themselves to even think that. They've allowed themselves to think, you know what? One day, I can be a great communicator. I can be a great NFL player, I can be a great mom. They let themselves believe and work for it. You've got to desire an extraordinary life. And the reality is, many people don't show up because they're thinking too myopically. They're thinking about their past story. They're trapped in their past hurts. They're comparing themselves to everybody now and they're completely blind to their future opportunities and the reality of just how far and how fast and how extraordinarily we can all grow. We're geeking out on personal development because we know it pays its dividends. We do this work because we know it changes the trajectory of our own potential and destiny. That this is taking life by its horns. This is taking the reins back. This is being the captain of the ship, whatever metaphor you want. This is doing the work. This is showing up. This is making self improvement a way of life because we know if we don't make it a way of life and we only do it once in a while we'll be stuck. But that daily effort of showing up to fill out your journal. You showed up. Keep doing it. Show up again and again and again. Tomorrow, the next day, the next day, the next day after that because every day is a great day to grow.