30 Days of Navigating Life as a 23-Year-Old: Day 1 — The Art of Showing Up
It is 7 minutes to midnight as I sit to write this post. My eyes are drooping shut, and my mind is kind of blank, but I choose to write before the day ends.
And that’s why today I want to write about showing up.
Showing up, no matter what.
Showing up at your 100%.
Showing up at your 50%.
Showing up even at your 1%.
I pondered a lot about what I wanted to write about today. After all, it is the first day of the challenge — must be something strong and meaningful. I did have some musings and reflections that I wanted to write about. Moreover, I went through a string of emotions and phases throughout the day today. And every feeling, every emotion made me wonder if I should explore it deeper to write about it. Or maybe write about it to explore it deeper. Works either way, right?
But all of those emotions were fleeting — none were deep enough to be explored, to be observed, to be pondered upon. And as I saw the clock gush past every hour, not a care for me or anyone in the world, I figured, it was time to write. Just write. Show up and write. No matter what comes through. All I had to do was write.
And that’s exactly what I am going to write about — The art of showing up.
As I mentioned in my previous article, the one thing I have learned about achieving anything is being consistent with it more than anything. And consistency means showing up. No matter how difficult it gets, no matter how hard it seems to you, you fight through all those urges and you show up to do the job!
Showing up does not mean you give your 100% every day. Also, your 100% may not (and will not) be the same every day. Yet, you respect yourself enough to keep the promise you made to yourself to get a part of the work done every day. Today, you may contribute to doing just 2% of the work. Tomorrow, you may be feeling deeply inspired and give more than 100% to the work. But at the end of the day, what mattered was that you showed up! You did the work. You respected yourself just like you would a leader/a manager/an authority figure and you followed through on your word.
Now, showing up is not something that comes easily to me. I have, and still, continue to struggle with consistency. I struggled with it today as well. On a normal day, I would have given up, chosen to postpone writing the article and succumbed to my sleeping urges.
But today was something different. I chose to break the cycle consciously. I led myself with the intention to respect myself, keep my word and do better for myself. I chose to move through the urges, the discomfort. I chose to push myself out of my comfort zone and do what I had promised myself to do.
I believe that the relationship you have with yourself is the most important relationship of all. The quality and depth of that relationship determines the quality and depth of all your other relationships. And like any other relationship, it needs to be nurtured. You cannot promise a person that you’d show up and expect them to be fine when you don’t. And you definitely would not expect them to be fine when this pattern keeps repeating over and over again. Eventually, either the relationship ends up breaking or you end up changing — for the better.
Now, when it comes to being in a relationship with yourself, it doesn't really break. You're just tired of your own shit and realize you NEED to make some changes, or else you’ll be stuck in the vicious cycle that is helping no one.
And that is exactly what I chose to do today. I was truly tired of procrastinating all the time. I procrastinate on everything. I find myself procrastinating on something as simple as having lunch. And I was done with my own self, my own patterns that were causing me so much hurt and pain. I knew it was time for a change. And the only way you break a pattern is by breaking it. Yup, that’s the only way you do it.
And so, today I did it. I broke the pattern. I broke the pattern of giving in to my urges no matter how deeply I wanted to, I broke the pattern of not respecting myself enough. I broke the pattern of not keeping my word. I broke the pattern of not showing up for myself because I take myself for granted. I am done doing all of that.
And me writing this article is the beginning of that shift, that change, that pattern break.
I hope you take this as a sign for you to break a pattern, stop procrastinating, show up for yourself and do the thing you always promised yourself to do but never did.
This is a time for change. This is the time to show up. This is the time to take action. I did it. Now, it’s time you do too.
Thank you so much for reading till the end. Thank you for being a part of this journey!
This is the 30-day challenge I’ve taken up for myself. Join me for the ride!
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