You’ve probably heard me talk before about the life changing magic of simply showing up, and why it’s so important when it comes to creating momentum and building your courage muscles.
The other reason that showing up is so important?
To prevent the all or nothing cycle that is so easy to fall into when we feel ourselves having an off day. This cycle is pretty much the hallmark of the New Year’s Resolution, or indeed any habit or commitment that we make for ourselves that starts off with an initial flush of enthusiasm and ends with us realising that we’ve actually been scrolling Facebook for the last hour and what the hell and how did that happen.
And before any smugness sets in for those of us with well-established routines of showing up, falling out of a good habit or finding yourself unable to show up in the way you want to because of well, life (it happens to the best of us), is something that we need to be mindful of every step of the way.
For instance, the way I’ve engineered things means that I work with my horses every morning of the weekdays. It used to be that weekends provided reliable riding times, but now my boys are older, it’s much more about them than it is about me. For the most part, this habit is effortless. But there are times when I’m tired, or I have a lot of work to do, or something comes up where showing up to play together with my horse is not possible. The rules I play too is that it’s what you do most of the time that matters- one day is ok, but I don’t want one day to have a snowball effect. Consequently, I never let myself be totally absent more than a day. Even if on the second day it’s not possible for me to show up physically, I do something to keep my head in the game. Watch a training video. Read a book. Anything that mentally takes me into the learning and showing up space.
The reason? It’s as much about maintaining the sense of being a person that gets out there and shows up for their horse as it is putting in the hours. In fact, “putting in the hours” is never a framework I operate from; but despite the passion, enthusiasm and love I feel for my horses, life can pull us away if we are not intentional about maintaining what we love.
So when it doubt, keep showing up. For yourself as much as for anyone or anything else.
Onwards.
❤️ Jane
