Master the art of ‘Just Showing up’ to lead Yourself Effectively

In an earlier article I shared on the most difficult part of leadership as the ability to lead one self. Yet, this is the primary individual responsibility once everyone achieves the age of majority.

Simply put, ultimately your life boils down to where you led yourself into. Your career, family life, friends, religious life, money and the legacy you will eventually leave behind depends on this.

Without a doubt, each one of us will struggle to maintain the good habits that are beneficial to your life. The bad habits are the easy path and tend to perpetuate themselves automatically. That explains why only a select few make it to the top, while majority of people wallow in mediocrity.

During my 4.00am club rituals, I bumped into two audio clips that have made it easier to lead myself sustainably. These are the ‘5 seconds rule’ and ‘Just Show-up mantra’.

The 5 seconds rule dictates that when you set a timeline to start an activity, then take action immediately within 5 seconds of hitting the set time. For instance, if you set your alarm to wake-up say at 5.00am, then jump out of the bed within 5 seconds of the alarm going off.

The ‘Just Show-up mantra’ means when you commit to do something, just make sure you appear at the set time, with the required attire, at the location you are required, even if you do not feel like it. For instance, if you commit to start going to the gym on a particular day and time, just wear your gym gear and appear at the gym even when you do not feel like it.

Whatever the case, just get yourself down there –and if you must, just do nothing at the gym and then go back. It is enough if you just made the effort to get to where the gym is, even if you did nothing beyond appearing and going back.

Here is why you must Master these two rules in order to lead yourself effectively:

1. As soon as you take action, the motivation will come – for instance, even on the days I struggle most to jump out of the bed at 4.00am, as soon as am out, on my track suits and feel the cold early morning air, somehow the energy to complete my exercises come; no matter how lazy I feel on that particular day;
2. It does not have to be perfect – always remember that whatever it is that you intend to do, it does not have to be perfect, just get started and do it. You will always be able to figure out any improvements that you need to make as you move along. After all, we are all made of flaws from the maker –we just have to keep on improving ourselves daily;
3. If it gets started, it gets done – there can never be any progress without taking the very first step. For this article to be available here for you to read, enjoy and learn from, the first word must be typed first. Once this milestone is completed, the rest of the article flows;
4. The achievements or outcomes will eventually become a great motivator – for as long as you keep doing what you have purposed to do, progress will be made no matter how small the milestones are. Overtime, you will start witnessing or enjoying the benefits. Such results ultimately become the real motivational factor to keep doing it;
5. Focus on the big picture – for instance, when I start my exercises every morning, I never focus on the activities themselves; I always view it as am working on my physical-sets so that I can improve on my health-sets, mind-sets, heart-sets and financial-sets (this Robin Sharma’s lingua). That way I never see the grueling exercises and the cold mornings as the end on itself.

As a bonus point, failing to utilize the 5 seconds or showing-up in any one day makes it easier to miss again in the following day. If you skip two days makes it easier to skip a week; skipping a week will eventually make it a month; and before you know it, time is gone with nothing done or achieved.

The tragic part of it is that, the time you did not go to the gym or the extra hour of sleep you thought you will enjoy by not getting up eventually gets wasted. It thus becomes a double loss in a way.

Overtime, as you keep on keeping on, your life becomes better and you start to enjoy a life that many other people cannot live. This is because you are doing the things that most other people are not willing to do!