When I was younger, I read in some business self-help book that to “show up” is half way to success.

I thought that showing up is about turning up. You know, get your attendance marked. How hard can that be? I turned up for school and for work everyday, but why wasn’t I successful?

Then people started telling me different definition of “show up”. It meant more than being physically present, according to them. You gotta be physically, emotionally, mentally and even spiritually present, then it’s considered that you “showed up”. Wow, that was significantly harder.

Nowadays I find that, with all the demands of various commitments, it can be hard even to physically show up, especially when the outcome is uncertain.

Why show up when I don’t know whom I might meet in a networking event?

Why show up for Sunday worship when I’d rather sleep a little more, to make up for burning midnight oil yesterday?

Why show up for a workshop when I might not learn anything important, and when there are deadlines pending?

The thing is, there are very good reasons not to show up. Not excuses, but really good reasons. That’s why many don’t show up. Not even physically.

But when we subscribe to these reasons, we forget that we are finite beings, and our reasoning cannot even help us to see around a bend in the street corner. We don’t know what is to come in the next moment. Not to even mention tomorrow.

By showing up, we are opening ourselves up to opportunities. We’re saying, I don’t know what is to come, and I am willing to believe that good things might happen, and so I show up.

Showing up is hard, that is why only a few does it. Maybe that is why it is half way to success, whatever success means to you.

Thank you for reading. I am getting long winded.

May you show up for all things important enough to you!