Are You Just Showing Up?

If I could just get myself out of bed every morning and pour myself a hot cup of coffee and get in my car and drive to the office and just. If I just show up, if I just show up every day, I'll get better and reach my goals, right? Well, on today's biz growl, I want to tell you why that's not necessarily the case. Hi there. This is Brent Kelly of biz Grizz. About 20 years ago, I played in one of the ugliest basketball games, I mean, ugly, in my short career. It was during a holiday tournament, and my high school team played a 9am game. Now, I think there were about, give or take, 37 people in the entire building, and this counts, the cheerleaders. And you could hear about every conversation going on. Now, needless to say, there was very little energy or excitement in that building. Now, at halftime, the score was 11 to 8. And when the final buzzer went off, I kid you not, we lost 24 to 21. Yes, that's right. The final score of a high school varsity basketball game was 24 to 21. I believe that still holds the record for that tournament today. It was utterly embarrassing, and we had excuses, if you wanted to, why we played so poorly. I mean, it was early start time, and there was, like, sun coming through the windows. There was injuries, including myself. I was injured that day. It was just a bad day. All these excuses. But the reality was that we assumed we could just show up. We could just go through the motions, just show up, got the bus, get there. If we show up, we'll be fine and we'll play a decent game. And obviously, as the score indicated, we were sorely mistaken. And I personally learned a great lesson that day. And here's the lesson. You can never, and I mean never, just show up. And I've experienced and I've observed this lesson in life and business over the past 20 years as well. In fact, I know professionals. I've talked to them and met with them who feel that if they just show up for work every day, they will improve and get the results they desire. That's just simply not the case. Your growth and development at work, at home, and anything that you want to improve upon will never happen automatically. You don't get better by just waking up, putting on your clothes, grabbing the coffee, heading to the office, going to the motions, coming home and turning on the tv. My mentor says you don't improve by simply living. You have to be intentional about it for a large portion of your life, which really includes your formal education. You showed up, you were told what to learn, what to do and how to do it. And then guess what? At some point you graduate or leave, whatever the case may be. Now, once your formal education is finished, you must take complete ownership of your growth and development. Because guess what? No one will do it for you. If you want to improve and get better results in your life and in business, you don't have the luxury of simply showing up. Anyone can show up, and unfortunately, that's what most our society does. Your growth does not happen automatically. Some people tell me they just need more experience to be successful. And while experience can be a great teacher, I know many people who simply experience the same day over and over and over. Kind of like the movie Groundhog Day. See, that's not growth, that's repetition. Just as I learned on the basketball court 20 years ago, anyone can just show up and get poor results. The difference between those who remain bound in their past and in their current circumstances and those who move forward is that those moving forward show up with passion, hunger and the desire to improve themselves daily. Successful people never just show up. So let me leave with one question for you. As I shared with you in my experience in the basketball court and I've had other experiences I've learned where I've just showed up and not got the results I desired. Are there places in your life where you're just showing up? Thanks again for listening. This is Brent Kelly of Biz Griz, encouraging and challenging you every day to go face your grizzly.