Why It’s Hard to Show Up

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about showing up for your talent.  A good friend of mine called to tell me how much she liked the post, but she continued to observe that she was not showing up for what she loved doing.

Can you please tell me why it’s so hard and what I can do about it?

Here’s what I told her:

Most of us have a list in our heads of what we have to do before we get to Have Fun.  A direct descendant of, Eat your vegetables before you eat dessert. Or, You can’t go out and play until you’ve done your homework. The hard stuff, the tedious stuff, the necessary stuff MUST COME FIRST.  When we grow up, the whole notion of delayed gratification is essential.  If we didn’t learn how to delay, we might never get a lot of important things accomplished.

As a result, showing up for our talent seems like “too much fun”.  It belongs at the bottom of our list, right?

There are two truths that this reasoning doesn’t take into consideration.

1. “The List” is NEVER done!  We have this fantasy that the list will be done.  We use this idea to beat ourselves up.  I have a friend who is a wonderful artist.  She can’t really throw herself into her art until her house is straight.  Her house will NEVER be straight.  So, she will have to block time to show up for her talent, even if the bed’s not made.
2. The second truth is powerful but usually ignored.  When we do what we love, show up for our talent, it multiplies our energy.  We not only have energy for what we love, it gives us the energy to do the other stuff faster and more smoothly.  It actually makes sense to do what you love FIRST so you have more energy for the other stuff afterwards –  put it at the TOP of your list.

If I can’t talk you into showing up for your talent because the world needs all of us to do what we love, then let me convince you in another way: The only way you’ll finish your list, is to do your talent.  It seems like a paradox, but it’s true.

Experiment and let me know how it goes.  I’m looking forward to next Tuesday.

Yippee!

Elizabeth