I remember when I was studying accountancy being told by the President of my professional body that one of the things necessary to passing the examinations was simply this: Show up and do the work. In other words, if you do the studying and show up in the examination hall, the chances are that you will pass. That was eye-opening information, when the worldwide pass rate for the examinations at the time was only about 40%. It seems that a lot of people weren't showing up and doing the work.
Well, I did enough work, and I did show up, and the result was that I passed sixteen three hour examinations at the first attempt, and with very good scores.
Less positively than that, I wonder how many times I have failed to do the work, and failed to show up? What successes have I missed? What opportunities have I lost? Experiences I could have had? People I could have met? What were the results of listening to my weariness, or my fears? What was the price of laziness?
My fear is that my failures to show up have contributed to the mediocrity I feel I have experienced in some parts of my life - particularly in my sense of personal fulfilment in my work, in hobbies, in travel, in accomplishments. I did show up later in life and gained a Master's degree, but the danger now is that I will fail to show up and make use of it. My commitment to Steemit is my saying that in future I AM going to show up. I AM going to do the work.
And in doing so, I will see my life transformed. I will climb out of the mediocrity and into a life that feels as though it is worth living.
Can I ask you to think about the times when you have done the work and shown up? What did you achieve or gain? What did you experience? Who did you meet?
What about those times when you didn't show up? When you didn't do the work? Didn't make the effort? When you were seduced by something easier and (in the short term) more pleasurable? What did you miss out on?
What opportunities and challenges are we facing in our lives right now? From my perspective, the advances in computers and the internet over the last ten years or so have opened up tremendous possibilities to achieve success way beyond what I could have done when I was growing up. When I was growing up, becoming a professional writer was little more than a remote dream: now it is a real possibility.
But will I grasp those possibilities? Will I show up?
Will you?
