Are You Showing Up?

I just realized I’m not.

And I realized it in the best way possible.  I was in Nashville, Tennessee on a Saturday night, eating barbeque in a cozy house listening to the most hip-shaking, soul moving music.  Mark Selby, a musical virtuoso cowboy from Oklahoma was on guitar, his wife Tia Sillers was singing.  And I was getting lost in every hard strumming song, every bluesy guitar piece set to a magical poem.

And then Tia woke me up.

“I’m a songwriter,”she told us, passing a hand through her runaway curls.  “I write when it’s hot, cold, sunny, rainy, and cloudy.  I write on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, even Sundays.”  She writes 60 – 80 songs a year.  Six of them might be recorded.

You’ve heard stories of composers who had a song just “come to them”.   And no doubt that happens.  But what creates the opportunity for that to happen?  SHOWING UP!

Sometimes it seems like other people’s success happens overnight, they are talented, “inspired”.  But every spring when I walk into my garden and the daffodils are suddenly blooming, I remember that great things take work.  Flowers have to be chosen, the soil has to be prepared, the bulbs have to be planted, then one day – WOW.

To expect otherwise is magical thinking.

Tia has talent.  She doesn’t have to “work” to have the talent.  She has to show up in a consistent and disciplined way in order for her talent to bloom.  Do you know WHY she shows up?  It’s not just to make money, I can pretty much guarantee that.  It’s not to impress people like me, either.  It’s because she loves it.  Her songwriting makes her say yippee.  And she shows up for her yippee – every day.

So if we know what our yippee is, whether it’s making wedding cakes, guitar playing or starting a business, then we have to remind ourselves:

It’s not too late
There’s enough time
It doesn’t happen overnight

And most of all, we have to show up for it.

This is where I was going to end this post.  I was going to turn off my computer and head for bed.

Except this blog is for me, too.  Tia, whether she knew it or not, was talking to me.

I have been a business strategist and a very good one for the past twenty plus years.  It’s only recently I have discovered how much I love to write.  It’s part of my yippee.  But lately I haven’t been showing up for it.  I figure the mood, inspiration will strike and thenI will show up.  But what I have discovered is, it doesn’t show up until AFTER I show up to write.  It’s time for me to show up more often.  And I will.  What about you?

What makes you reallysay yippee?

Whatever it is don’t forget:

It’s not too late
There’s enough time
It doesn’t happen overnight

And most of all, show up for it.  Not for money or fame but just for the pure feeling of yippee that comes from doing what you love.  Every day.

Let me know what you discover.    Until next Tuesday.

Yippee!

Elizabeth