To succeed at anything, you have to keep at it. We all know this, right?

Want to succeed at your job? Show up to work and do the work.

Want to get in shape? Show up at the gym and do the work.

Want to write a book? Show up at the page and do the work.

Want to learn how to knit? Show up and do the work. (Also, maybe ask your mom…she probably knows how.)

To succeed at anything, you have to show up. Even when you don’t feel like it.

Especially when you don’t feel like it.

The bad news is, you won’t always feel like it. This is resistance. Resistance is the internal force that keeps you from showing up, from being your best self.

Resistance hates change. And resistance doesn’t discriminate. We all have it.

Resistance comes in many flavors: fear, boredom, procrastination, self-doubt, lack of motivation.

Resistance is quite cunning. It will bring to mind all sorts of other things that you could be doing instead of the one thing that you should be doing.

Resistance will tell you that you’ve worked hard, and you deserve a break today. And probably tomorrow. Definitely the following day, right?

Resistance will remind you that you’re not going to be perfect, so why even bother? (Resistance and perfectionism love working together).

And the pièce de résistance (pun intended)?

Resistance will tell you that it really doesn’t matter if you show up.

Resistance is a liar.

It does matter if you show up. And the good news is, you can show up even if you don’t feel like it.

You can work out if you don’t feel like working out. You can write if you don’t feel like writing. You can do the work if you don’t feel like doing the work.

If you can get yourself to the gym or to the desk or to wherever your work is waiting for you, and get through the first five minutes, you can usually remember your why, which is terrible news for resistance but great news for you.

Because you don’t have to want to put in the work. You just have to put in the work.

You just have to show up.

~xo,
LuAnne

tweetables:

“Most of us have two lives: the life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.” (~Steven Pressfield)