How to Master the Art of Showing Up
As I wrap up my PA Women’s Conference Series, I am a bit torn with my emotions. I had so much fun recapping the hot topics in these posts, revisiting the empowering thoughts and feelings that I had while at the conference, and hopefully inspiring you with the content I provided. I am a little sad that I’ll be ending this series, but I am also excited to start exploring other topics for future blog posts in the future.
You can check out the first four posts here:
This week’s topic is one that I discuss on nearly all my coaching calls, and it is about habit formation. It is about breaking our big lofty goals down into itty bitty bite-sized pieces that may not seem like much, but in the long run, it’s the ultimate key to success.
At the PA Women’s conference, I had the pleasure of hearing James Clear, author of Atomic Habits speak. In his speech he said “it’s not the goal that drives results, it’s the system. And if the system is broken, or the system is not optimal, then the goal will remain a goal.” Clear used the Tour de France as his example. Every team that enters that race has the goal of winning, but if having the goal was enough, then every team would win, so it’s the teams that work on improving their systems, their training, their gear, their mindsets, their nutrition, etc., that excel and actually achieve their goal of winning the race.
He continued with his example by sharing the triumphant journey of Great Britian’s racing team, a team that lost the Tour de France, year after year. But, when they got a new coach who focused on improving their system, things turned around. The coach focused on what James Clear calls the “1% better” theory, which explains the power behind tiny gains. Using this method, within a few years, the team won the race, and then continued to win the race five out of the next six years.
The “1% better” theory explains that When a team or individual strives to make continual 1% improvements, they will yield significant and sustainable results and achieve their goals. In other words, by focusing on tiny incremental changes you will not throw your system completely out of whack, but in time, when you continue to marginally grow day after day and year after year, you will yield much more growth and more sustainable results than if you had tried to make something 100% better on day one and then attempt to sustain those results.
As someone who as always believed in and stressed the importance of focusing on baby steps, I loved the simplicity of this theory.
I started to test this theory with my own clients. Rather than discussing what baby steps they could take to reaching their goals, I started to ask them what they could do to get 1% closer to their goal. For many, it was just showing up. So, I started to change my language based on this theory. Rather than discussing baby steps or 1% improvement, we started to focus on having them just master the art of showing up. We started breaking their lofty goal into small two-minute routines that would not shake their entire routine and watched as they achieved long-term sustainable growth and results.
The results were astounding. With this small reframe, my clients were much more open to brainstorming how they could get started. They were able to relax a bit as they realized that two-minutes was incredibly “doable” and that they didn’t have to completely throw their schedule or routine out of whack.
What would happen if you focused on just getting 1% closer to your goal? What if you set aside just two-minutes to do something that got you closer to your goal? How exciting would it be if you mastered the art of showing up? How exciting will it be when this art of showing up ultimately helps you achieve your goal?
The following examples are inspired by real client stories.
Starting a workout routine.
Let’s say that you’re not working out and want to start practicing yoga for 60 minutes five times per week. After working out the details and visioning what ultimate success looks like, you’ve decided that you’d like to practice morning, right after waking up, in your guest room is your optimal path to success. What does 1% better look like?
Day 1: For some, this could mean simply finding your mat and putting it in that room. For others, it could mean cleaning out that room to make space for your mat.
Day 2-xx: Now that your space is clean and your mat is there, it could mean getting out of bed and moving into that space. It could mean unrolling your mat and doing child’s pose for two minutes before starting your day.
It is these days that start to form the habit. By waking up and physically moving into the space that you’d like to practice yoga, you’re mastering the art of showing up. Once this becomes natural to your body and your routine, you can then again think about what does 1% more look like to you?
It could mean graduating from child’s pose to doing 5-10 sun salutations. Or it could mean having a yoga routine queued up on your computer, ready to press play when you walk into the room each morning. Whatever it is, you’ve already mastered the art of showing up, and now you’re just tacking on small incremental steps that will get you closer to your goal.
Starting a Side Hustle
What would it look like to apply this same concept to a different goal, like starting a business? That seems like a huge time commitment, right? Like something you’d have to put your entire life on hold for? It’s goals like these that stop us in our tracks. What if we fail? What if nobody hires us or likes our products? What if I’m not good enough? What if, what if, what if.
What if, we took a structured approach to this goal just like the yoga goal. Rather than putting off your goal because it will take a lot of time and it’s too much to fit into your schedule right now, break it down into two-minute habits. Master the art of showing up.
Let’s say the hustle is creating wood signs to sell at a craft fair. Leave your sketchbook where you can see it, pick the optimal times and days of the week to sketch, sit down for two minutes, and sketch. The beauty of this approach is that you begin to find the best times to tap into your creativity. You begin to have a book full of designs that you can tap into when you’re ready to start painting. You begin to master the art of showing up.
Once you’ve established the habit of showing up and sketching, then your 1% better could be transferring your designs to wood signs or researching and signing up for upcoming fairs. Whatever it is, you’re that much closer because you took the time, you took the two-minutes every day to create a new routine and to get started.
You’ll notice in both examples, we broke the goal down to two-minute routines. Why is that? For one, it’s because two-minutes is better than no-minutes. And secondly, you can do anything for two minutes. The time it takes you to get up from your desk to get coffee, or to hit the ladies room takes you two minutes. Sometimes longer if you get chatting with someone.
Here’s a fun exercise to see what two minutes feels like:
Set a two-minute timer on your phone.
Put the phone down, close your eyes, and focus on your breath until the timer goes off. Take slow, deep inhales and exhales, and try to center your mind around your breath. Some people find it helpful to count their breaths to keep their minds from wandering.
When the timer goes off, open your eyes. How did that feel?
Now, imagine setting that same exact timer and spending the two-minutes doing something you enjoy or something that helps you reach that big, lofty goal. Not so bad right? It actually probably seems like it is not enough time to make any progress, but, it is!
By breaking your goal into two-minute habits, you’re mastering the art of showing up. You are building lifelong habits that will ultimately help you achieve your goals.
For those of you that have tried this, comment below on if it worked, and what other tips you have to help our readers.
For those that have not, what is a two-minute exercise that you can start incorporating into your routine to help you achieve your goals?
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