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Why “Just Show Up” is BS Advice
And what you should do instead.
I’ve heard it enough—people asking writers and creators to “just show up” to succeed. Someone once said, “Show up, and half the work is done.”
Are you kidding me?
If showing up would get the work done, I’d be 100x a better writer and person than I am. There have been hundreds of days I have shown up and couldn’t produce any work. And even on some days when I did work, I was too scared to post it online. Do you know what that means? Zero progress.
When your progress is zero, it means nothing has improved. Sure, you might have learned something from your “mistake” or “failure” but that won’t do sh*t if you think you will do better if you showed up again.
Don’t get me wrong here. I agree that showing up is crucial because action comes before motivation. Sitting your butt down on your work chair and starting “something” is the first step to finding the motivation to produce great work. When you lead with action, you get results.
But not always.
Showing up won’t make a difference…if (that’s right, there’s an if) you aren’t making any improvements. Do you think going to work and sitting there doing nothing will make any difference? Not at all. But isn’t that showing up?
