#5 Show Up

This is an issue I wrote about several weeks ago.

It’s an issue I will write about in the future.

And it’s the fifth thing you should do every day for the last 115 days in 2019.

Showing up means ignoring how you feel.

I’ve had some pretty sucky days this year. So have you. Sickness, depression, exuberant joy, anxiety, the basic blahs, dehydration, over-hydration, hunger, or too much pizza. We’ve all had some version of all these things, and more. You still have to show up. If you need therapy, get therapy. If you need a nap, take a nap. But determine right here and right now that you are going to show up for the next 115 days. It doesn’t matter how you feel. Show up and make/write/create/paint/journal/draw/do whatever it is you do.

Showing up means making a schedule.

Ignoring how you feel doesn’t change how you feel. Working on your thing whether you feel great or you feel like crap doesn’t change those facts.

It changes narrative.

The best way to contain your emotional state and your projects is to make a schedule. Use whatever it is you use to schedule your stuff (Google calendar or a rubber band around your wrist. Whatever works for you.) Make it and follow it.

Showing up means butt in the chair, do the work.

This is the most important part. Execute. Writing this blog means writing this blog. There have been many days over the past 2 years when I haven’t felt like doing this. But, there are many days when painters don’t feel like painting, plumbers don’t feel like plumbing, accountants don’t feel like accounting, and novelists don’t feel like noveling.

It doesn’t matter.

Inspiration is for amateurs.

Put your butt in the chair and do the work.

Even if it’s not your best work, ever.

Bring the best you’ve got for the day.

Then do it again tomorrow.

You now have 115 days left. Make amazing in the last 1/3 in 2019.

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Sunday Sermonizing: A Theology of Ecology

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#4 Sleep