Showing up – Educational Stoic

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” – Franklin Roosevelt

Fear will make cowards of us all.

It can be fear of failure, of exposure as a fraud, of losing what we hold dear. The possibilities are endless.

Fear can make you do and say things you would never do or say in normal circumstances.

How do you combat fear?

Put one foot in front of the other. Take it one day at a time.

Fear can paralyze you.

Often fear is about controlling the uncontrollable.

Something happens to you, and you want it fixed now.

“Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.” – Epictetus

We worry about what the future holds. But none of us is guaranteed a future at all.

Fear grips you, and you get stuck.

You are afraid of the unknown. You are afraid to take the next step.

Is it the problems that worry you or the catastrophes you invent about those problems?

When you are afraid, the future that you invent is usually a dark and dangerous one.

“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.” – Marcus Aurelius

Think about your life. You are 100% in getting through bad days.

Just because the future is uncertain why does it have to be bad?

What if it all works out?

Don’t get upset. Keep going. You will have the tools to meet what comes your way when it comes your way.

The Reflections from Holstee email Finding Creative Inspiration (Part 1) begins with a video from a TED Talk by Elizabeth Gilbert. “In the video, Elizabeth talks about an old and rather mystical idea, dating back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, of a ‘genius’ that comes to us and creates through us. This genius is unpredictable, and it may or may not come to us. But we improve our chances of experiencing it just by showing up.”

Everything begins by showing up

If you don’t show up you can’t be in the game. If you don’t show up your opinion doesn’t matter.

But showing up isn’t enough.

Then you have to do the work.

You have to have the perseverance to overcome the obstacles that will inevitably be thrown in your way. You have to have the passion to keep going.

Angela Duckworth defines grit as perseverance and passion for long term goals.

Showing up is the start. Do you have the grit to continue?

The Reflections from Holstee email Finding Creative Inspiration (Part 2) talks about the resistance we all feel when we show up. “There is always something that inevitably comes up. Are they real needs or are they subconscious resistance to doing the work?”

If what you are doing is important you will find the time to accomplish it.

If it is not important why are you doing it?

The world is full of distractions. Our lives are constant fights for our attention.

We must find the space and quiet to show up, then the willpower to ignore the distractions.

“Two words should be committed to memory and obeyed by alternately exerting and restraining ourselves, words that will ensure we lead a mainly blameless and untroubled life: persist and resist.” – Epictetus

Epictetus is taking about a different kind of resistance.

Persist in showing up and doing good work. Resist all the “urgent” matters that try to grab your attention.