Show Up To Your Life

There is a saying that 90% of life is just showing up. Go to your classes, to work, to training, to your practices, to your study sessions, to gatherings with friends and family — if these are the things that you want — and you will learn, and you will grow from them, and you will have the experience.

If you choose not to show up to your life, to skip the things that appear to be hard either from fear, anxiety, or a desire for comfort, then you miss those opportunities to grow.

Just Be There

I can’t tell you how many things in my life that I have missed out on just because I didn’t go. I chose consciously to abandon many pursuits temporarily because I was (and am) chasing something that is to this day more important. Yet at the same time, I cannot shake the feeling of the idea of what I could be if I decided to stay, simply to show up again and again, in a handful of those pursuits that I deemed secondary at the time.

I might have made close friends, or have completely different friend groups. I would certainly be extremely skilled in the thing I put on hold. I could have a University degree, a black belt, skills that I do not possess, and experiences that I don’t have — that I can never have — because that time has passed.

It is hard to say whether I have regrets in this regard. In some ways certainly. But on the whole? It is hard to say. For me it is the unknown that entices me about this question, because I will never know how things might have played out if I made a few key decisions differently.

One thing I do know now is that all that we need to do is be there, to show up to these moments in our lives, and we create the conditions for new and unique opportunities for ourselves. Opportunities that we would not be in a position to grasp, if we so choose, if we did not show up to that thing in our lives.

Show Up To Your Life, Keep Moving Forwards

So long as you continue to show up to your life, you create the conditions to grow and evolve, to keep moving forwards. Whatever those things are that mean the most to you, just keep showing up. Day in and day out, no matter how hard it is, just find a way to show up.

Find a way to overcome yourself (at least the part of yourself that is holding you back) and continue to show up to make yourself better, to continue moving forwards in the direction of your dreams. There is no other way.

The more that you continue to avoid, the further that you stray from the path. In the moment it is hard to know what is right, because there are often different sides within us pulling us in different directions. All that you can do is think deeply, follow your heart, do your best to learn from your mistakes, but at the same time, making the best decision that you can make given what is facing you.

Show up to your life. Don’t hide in fear. Don’t let your anxieties, stress, or past mistakes control or define you. Just show up, and keep moving forwards, at whatever pace you can manage. Eventually you will get somewhere that will make every step of your journey worth it.