Showing Up

Inspired, or Not!

“Inspiration is one thing and you can't control it, but hard work is what keeps the ship moving. Good luck means work hard.”

Kevin Eubanks

Lately, I have struggled to come up with something inspiring to write about. I've missed a few days of posting because of it, and sometimes when I go back and read my blogs at the end of the day, I find them dry. I'll bet you do, too. Some days, I wake up and just don't have any juice---perhaps you know what I'm talking about. Here's the good news about that: inspiration holds only a thimble full of importance—what really matters is that you show up and get the job done.

The late Angeles Arrien, anthropologist and teacher, had four rules for success: Show up. Pay Attention. Tell the truth. Don't be attached to outcome. These life-rules are as good as any I have ever found. Just showing up places you half-way to the goal. It's unreasonable to expect yourself to always be inspired—just ask any person you consider successful. Thomas Edison said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” It's the discipline of showing up and doing the work that determines success. Coach Nick Saban, now with six college football championships, always says, “We just have to work harder, execute better, play a 60 minute game.” I've never heard him say, “We need more inspired leaders and players.”

I once asked an artist, who makes incredible blown-glass flowers, how on earth he comes up with such fanciful creations. He said, “All I do is get up in the morning and go to work just like everybody else.” Some of what we do in life can seem inspired, but for the most part, it is sufficient to simply show up, give it the attention it deserves, and keep at it. Some of us think we have failed if we aren't always creative, always pushing the envelope, finding novel and inventive ways of doing our job. The problem with that is not that we cannot always do it, but that we expect ourselves to in the first place.

Show up, pay attention, tell the truth, especially about yourself, and let the chips fall where they may. Hard work is the key to success. Inspiration is simply the icing on the cake.

                                                    In the Spirit,

                                                       Jane