Courage is Showing Up

The last thing you want to do is sometimes exactly what you should do.

When you’re facing the blank page, it can feel like you’re pushing a boulder made of knives up a glacier. It’s the easiest thing in the world to walk away and try again another day. Sometimes that’s right. Sometimes you’re beaten and battered and need to regroup.

But most times you need to push that fucking boulder with all your might.

The only way things get done is by doing them. It sounds trite. It is trite. But it’s also true. We can wax poetic about inspiration and preparation, but at the end of the day, work is completed by those who show up and do the work.

Showing up is most of the battle. It’s also the scariest thing in the world. Facing fear means recognizing that you can fail. Worse, it means acknowledging that you can be hurt. That you will be hurt.

It’s an awful feeling.

But that’s what makes you brave. When you start — when you show up — you are saying to creation that you are willing to contribute. That your work matters. That you’ll face down all the naysayers and challenges and take them on. They’ll win. They’ll win a lot.

But one day they won’t. One day you’ll win.

And then we all win.