365 Days of Showing Up

3 May

 

Imagine you’re up on a diving board. Your toes grip the edge. You take a deep breath. And then…

You step back, too afraid to dive.

That was me for many years when it came to writing. I just couldn’t take the leap.

Then one year ago I read two books that changed everything: Linchpin by Seth Godin and The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

365 days, 124 posts and over 2000 comments later.

They’re not huge numbers, but they’re meaningful to me.

Those numbers prove that I took the leap and jumped into the great unknown. Because that’s what blogging and social media were to me one year ago today.

Steven Pressfield asks, “What keeps so many of us from doing what we long to do?”

Fear. Resistance. Lizard brain.

Call it what you will, it’s alive and real.

In The War of Art, Pressfield wrote this passage which sustained me on many days when I doubted and questioned myself.

“How many pages have I produced? I don’t care. Are they any good? I don’t even think about it. All that matters is I’ve put in my time and hit it with all I’ve got. All that counts is that, for this day, for this session, I have overcome Resistance.”

For the past 365 days I overcame resistance.

Those days were not often easy. So many days tired after a day with clients, I felt myself coming up with reasons and excuses, all designed to keep myself from sitting to write. So many conversations with my lizard brain, judging and assessing what I’d written like the nastiest of critics.

“Tell your lizard (brain) to shut up.” – Seth Godin

So much bloody resistance.

But once off that diving board, I also felt exhilarated.

I wanted more.

Imagine my surprise discovering that…

  • I missed writing on the days I didn’t make time for it
  • the more I wrote and worked on the blog, the more I wanted to do the work
  • I could write a post in one hour, when it used to take me four
  • some days there was nothing I’d rather do than sit and write

Exhilarating.

Like breaking through water, feeling the rush of adrenalin as you push upwards gasping for air.

365 days of showing up.

My lizard brain and I are more grateful than you could ever know.