I recently saw a quote from Ali Abdaal which asked “Ten years from now, what will I be really glad I did consistently for 10 years?”
Consistency and showing up is something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. Abdaal’s philosophy is reinforced by James Clear’s thinking on habits which he talks through in his bestselling book Atomic Habits. Although I’ve just started to read the book, I discovered the author has been writing a blog twice a week every week for the past 12 years. In one of his posts on motivation he talks about his difficulty in finding the will to show up twice a week to write his blog. He felt like he was getting nowhere. His conclusion:
“So, what do I do when I feel like giving up? I show up. Do I show up at my best? I doubt it. But my job isn’t to judge how good or how bad I am. My job is to do the work and let the world decide.”
This was exactly what I needed to hear as a small business owner. I feel that my voice is so small and often I am shouting into a void telling the world about my little corner of the world, trying to entice people to come to my tiny stall and consider my wares. When you feel like your slogging your guts out sharing your business with the world and no-one is listening, it calms me to think all I have to do is keep showing up and trust that the world (or the right people) will respond to my little voice if I persevere in the small daily habit of just showing up. I also love that it gives me permission to not be amazing. So often the need for perfection keeps me frozen and silent. Knowing that just showing up is enough makes it all feel a lot more achievable.
You can read more of James Clear’s blog at www.jamesclear.com and the article on not giving up here – I for one will be making lots of time to read this gem of a blog over the coming weeks and months!
Ali Abdaal is author of Feel Good Productivity: How to Do More of What Matters to You which takes a look at the relationship between productivity and joy.
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