Just Show Up
“You can definitely tell you’ve been working out.”
That’s something everybody would like to hear, right? Well, it happened to me.
The other day I was changing and my wife gave me the compliment I’ve been dreaming of for the past 8 months. My wife. The same woman who would not hesitate one second to shout about my bad morning breath in front of a bunch of strangers. Needless to say, I was over the moon.
The strange thing is; it didn’t feel like I worked towards that goal.
I’m usually an overthinker, a planner, someone who gets lost in research so much before a project I might end up abandoning because of information overload, and yet, “Project Gym” seems to have started with the right foot.
How is that possible?
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Delegation
Last October I hired a personal trainer, and once a week I drive to his personal gym and I let him torture me with his equipment.
It’s not as nasty as it sounds.
The trick here is that I have delegated all the planning, researching, scheduling, and, thinking to someone else. Someone who knows his stuff much better than I possibly could.
He’s really good. During every session he takes the time to explain why we’re doing what we’re doing and what he hopes to obtain. He’s also big on marginal improvements, so he’s pushing for me to start training multiple times a week and curate my diet a bit more, and the reason why I can even think about all these things is because I have been going every week, and I have been doing exactly what he told me.
In other words, it’s because I showed up.
The power of “just” showing up
You can borrow knowledge, but not action.
James Clear
My results in the gym are partly due to genetics, of course, and party de to the quality of my personal trainer, but those two factors are multipliers of me actually doing the work.
1,000 times 0 is still 0.
Showing up, by itself, gives results.
Another example of this phenomenon is extremely evident in the practice of writing.
Researching the best agents and publishers is important. Understanding how the industry works is important. Going to courses and reading books is important. Connecting with like-minded people is important. And yet, if you don’t have a book in your hard drive (and backed up in the cloud, just in case) all of the above doesn’t matter.
If you just show up every day, and write a few hundred words, in a couple of years you’ll have a novel.
It might be a bad novel, but nevertheless, it will be a novel you can make better.
You can’t improve something that doesn’t exist.
By just showing up for long enough, all the other marginal gains will start to fall into place, filling the relevant gaps as you go along and learn the craft. The harsh reality is, though, that 90% of the results will still be direct consequence of showing up every day and doing the work.
That’s why I write every morning. That’s why I go to the gym every week.
Good habits compound.
You just need to trust the process.
No. Trust is not a strong enough word.
Have faith.
Alla prossima.
