Who do you show up for?
Who’s showing up for you?
Perhaps most important, do you show up for yourself?
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Yesterday, on a day where I had a work calendar packed full of ‘things’, Gunnar’s school held their BoosterThon. Parents and friends pledge ‘x amount’ of money per lap, and the kids go out and run as many laps as they can in 30 minutes or so. Parents and friends can come watch and support the kiddos through their effort.
I had basically zero free time so I knew it’d be a pinch, and I’d have to rush there and back, and I figured he wouldn’t even really notice me yelling and waving amongst all the other parents.
Instead, he squealed and waved and jumped up and down when he saw me, face lit up with a smile wider than his ears, and he made it his mission to run all he could.
What really stood out to me is how when he was closest to me, he ran the fastest. The back half of each lap, he walked and recovered, but as soon as he was on the half of the course closest to me, he’d pick up speed and dig deep.
Granted, kids always want to level up when their parents are around, but it still stood out to me because it was glaringly obvious and he did the same exact thing lap after lap after lap.
As adults, this very thing is still important, arguably even more so. We choose who we surround ourselves with, after all.
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On the drive home I got to thinking…
Who do we show up for in our over-scheduled over-stressed day to day lives of all of our have-to-do things and little time left for our want-to-do things?
Do we realize how important our presence is, in those other people’s lives?
A small decision for us, easy to write off or downplay, but it could be the very thing they need to truly believe in themselves or make the right choices, improve their actions and behaviors.
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On the other hand, who shows up for us?
Who are ‘our people’?
Do we surround ourselves and try to spend more time with the people that bring the best out of us? If not, why not?
Do we spend too much time with people that don’t help us become the best version of ourselves?
Sounds cold, but a big part of any sort of change or journey or attempt to get ‘some place new’, can sometimes include letting go of old things and old ways. What many find is when with certain people or in certain places, we end up doing the very things we are trying to do less of.
Pretty illuminating thought process if you truly work through it.
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MOST important, do YOU show up for YOU?
Your goals and your values….do your actions line up with those?
Do you check on your internal dialog to make sure you’re not walking around in defeated state as your own biggest critic?
Are you living life one day at a time in the way that you know you need to work toward, to become the version of yourself you aspire to be?
It’s far easier to stay doing the same old thing often leading us to a place we so desperately wish to depart from, so fighting that urge to choose inaction is instrumental.
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Show up for YOU, first and foremost. In thoughts and in actions.
Then, show up for those that you know are counting on you.
All the while, make sure your people are showing up for you, in the way you need them to based on your goal destination.
