Day 225: Showing Up

If you're like me having big goals is great, but they can also be pretty intimidating.

Especially when things don't go as expected (as expectations have a way of turning great opportunities into disappointments).

What I've found (and continually find myself 'rediscovering' over and over) is that there are always much smaller goals in place before the big one can be accomplished.

Often these smaller goals are disguised as tasks or actions - the building blocks of progress.

And, when viewed as tasks rather than goals, it is way too easy to become overwhelmed with stress.

Why?

Because the learning, knowledge, and information that can be gained from these 'tasks' or 'actions' is overlooked. And when this happens, when we aren't actively learning from what's going on around us, we will eventually find ourselves in a bit of a slump. Feeling stuck, lost, stressed, pressured, and wondering where the fire and excitement we used to have for the goal has gone.

This is a crummy place to be.
I'm finally starting to come out of my own brief stay here.

The thing that helped me flip the switch and remove stress and pressure was zeroing back in on the smaller goals. And not just the tasks themselves, but WHY I am doing the tasks.

For example - taking a standup comedy class. The real reason I did it was to learn. To learn writing skills and delivery techniques for a more engaging presentation.

The class wasn't started in order to become a comedy star or to 'be the best.'
It was simply to learn.

To learn basics.

To build up my life toolbox so that I can practice manipulating skills and techniques in new and different ways than I could before.

It's about collecting data - seeing what I like and what I don't like, what I enjoy most and what I enjoy least.

It's not about perfection and it's not about achievement (as much as Hazey would have me believe otherwise).

It's about learning, plain and simple.

And the only guaranteed way to learn is to show up.

It's the very first step possible.
It holds no expectations or agendas.
But from it, anything is possible.

The first goal is showing up.

Let's start there.