Showing Up is the First and Greatest Step of All

So many people are taught from a young age that the first step we take towards something, is the hardest step that we will take. And in my life I’ve found that generally it does feel like the hardest. But I’ve come to the understanding that the reason it feels like the “hardest” step, is because it’s actually the greatest. It is the hardest step because the greatest thing you can do is to begin. To show up. To me, reframing it in this way brings a new energy to showing up and taking whatever initial leap you are about to take.

Usually we second guess ourselves and manifest this doubt through procrastination, or telling ourselves we aren’t qualified, or that no one wants to hear what we have to say. But here’s the thing, you are absolutely qualified. Because that feeling that you have of knowing what you should be doing in the first place, is your divine call to do just that. You are qualified, and you do have something to say. People want to hear it and see it from you. We are all so different, that we bring a new energy and perspective to everything that we do.

They say there is nothing new under the sun, I say there is. That thing is you.

To show up is to declare.

To show up is to claim.

To show up is to take up space.

To show up is to reciprocate.

We have a lot to be grateful for. Even when we experience struggle, I’d say breathing is still something to be grateful for. So we are always receiving. When I say that to show up is to reciprocate, it is to reciprocate that energy back into the world.

It feels hard because like most things that require power, it is uncomfortable at first. It’s uncomfortable because of the uncertainty we feel on how it will play out, or how we will be received. And that’s where we have to just trust that this thing is in our minds and hearts for a reason. For a purpose.

In my own life, one thing I have not shown up for is being a writer. Well, showing up as one. I’ve been a writer all of my life. When I was a child, I wrote poetry and journaled all of my feelings. I published one such poem in an anthology, and gosh I wish I would have taken it more seriously back then. But, here I am, still. As an adult, I still journal. It has been the number one tool in my growth and evolution, hands down. My family has even officially banned me from buying any new notebooks or journals for quite a while. I’m literally shunned if I even look down the aisle at them by my own children. Which is fine because digitally I can never run out of pages anyway. Ha!

I have always had, or at least started, a blog for any endeavor I’ve ever had. I’ll go as far as to say, as boring as it may sound to some; my absolute two favorite things to do are to read and to write. Of course there are others, but those are my top two on any day.

Yet somehow I’ve never shown up fully as a writer. Only halfsies, partially, fifty percent. Doing it without embodying it. Doing it afraid. Even though it’s literally who I am and what I do since I was a practically a baby. (My grandmother taught me to read at age 4, thanks Grammi!)

We are all different, and showing up for you could look like something totally different, because your purpose is.

Showing up is simply answering that persistent call that won’t leave you alone. No matter how hard you try to put energy into other things. There it is, back again.

This may look like:

• Stepping into your purpose, fully. Not halfsies. All the way!

• Doing something you know that you should be doing. Applying for that job. Booking that trip to start your new nomadic life. Enrolling in that culinary school.

• Caring for your self or others in a particular way. Setting boundaries, loving yourself more, committing to being a better friend, mom, sister.

Whatever it is, you can do it. Do it fully. And do it knowing that that first step is not the hardest. It’s your greatest.