Equipping young women professionals with young families to find fulfillment, contentment and joy as mothers and home makers without losing sight of who they are as women.

Volume 09, Issue 21: Just Show Up

Early last month I entered into a natural slack phase that happens to all of us after a good run. This was around the time in the new year when we can feel like slacking off from the efforts we laid out on our action plans for the year. There were days I woke up feeling sluggish, not wanting to do anything productive.

What sees me through such days are the words I repeat to myself, "I will be productive today. Irrespective of how I feel, I will give my all today, and leave nothing on the table." When it's hard, we have to find ways to make ourselves show up.

You can bear me witness that it's not always easy to keep going, to keep up the fight, do what we said we would do. These are the times we have to decide to just show up. Show up and keep with the program even when we don't feel like it.

I don't always feel like working or writing or reading or praying or exercising or meal prepping. Those are the times when I have to push myself to do what I said I would do, and actually do it whether I feel like it or not. I have learnt that we are not our feelings. We are not what we feel. Just because you feel lazy today doesn't mean you have to act lazy. We can choose to ignore how we feel and do what is right for us. The appropriate feelings always tend to follow suit once we get started.

It's never hard because we are overworking ourselves. It's always about wanting to do nothing or just the bare minimum. But the bare minimum doesn't make the cut for amazing results. When you're out of steam, give yourself a little break but have the stamina to get back on the race. You owe it to yourself to finish what you started.

The hardest thing can be keeping our word to ourselves. Nobody knows the goals you set for yourself and the action plans you laid out to follow through daily, weekly, monthly and so forth. Better still, nobody cares if you don't do what you said you would do. But you should care. We should be accountable to ourselves if we want to reap the benefits of staying committed to our growth.

Show up even when it's hard - when you really don't feel like it. Keep showing up until it gets easy again, and it will, it always does get easy again. Just show up, and before you know it, you will take off again.

Good things don't happen to those who need them, they happen to those who deserve them. If you want more out of your life, keep showing up. If you want to develop yourself in order to develop others, you've go to do a little more, a lot more. You've got to show up even when it's hard, even when you don't feel like it.

If you want your best body now that will also serve you well in your sunset years, you've got to put in the discipline to eat clean, and the time and effort to stay in shape. If you want to grow your mind, if you want to go deeper with God, if you want to scale heights in your career, if you want to grow your business to stand tall in comparison to the competition, if you want to equip your children for greatness, whatever it is you want, you've got to put in the extra effort. You've got to show up - take the actions you said you would take to get you there.

None of the great athletes we celebrate win their medals on the race day. They show up every day on the track and gym to prepare for the race day. They train hard and long day-after-day irrespective of mood or weather. Why do we think it should be any different for the rest of us? Each of us was made to be a world champion at something, yet we settle for so much less. It's time to decide to show up in all seasons.

Show up for yourself everyday. Show up if you want to leave your mark on this side of eternity. Show up if you want to go beyond ordinary. Show up if you want to make a difference with your life. Show up if you want to leave behind a legacy of something awesome. Just show up, as you said you would.

For His Glory,

Lillian Chebosi