Woody Allen said that 80 percent of life is just showing up. This is my interpretation of what that means. After all, I will be crazy to speculate about what goes on in that man’s head. Showing up for your life and for other people is crucial for amazing success. 

What does showing up mean?  How do you show up?

There are four key components of showing up. The first is being present in the moment.  The second is making the best or the most of most situations. The third is serving others or yourself. The fourth is making being amazing a habit.

Being Present in the Moment

Being present in the moment means focusing on the tasks and not getting distracted by other areas of your life. When you are at work, it is not time to make dinner plans or make a massage appointment. When you are at home and having dinner with your family, it is not time to check social media or share memes with your friends. Everything important in your life needs its own dedicated time and focus. We all have multiple areas of our lives that we need to simultaneously navigate. We all have professional obligations, personal obligations, and obligations to our own goals or well-being. Every obligation needs its own time and energy. Your attention needs to be focused on accomplishing your goals and not on random, meaningless tasks.

 Maximize or Make the Best of Most Situations

Showing up for your life means maximizing situations or making the best of negative situations. First, there are opportunities everywhere that you can exploit. You always have the opportunity to learn something. You always have the opportunity to be amazing. Secondly, it’s about making the best of situations. For example, if you are constantly stuck in traffic, turn on an audio book or listen to a podcast. If you are a business traveler and you are stuck in the airport, take the opportunity to whip out your laptop, put on your headphones, and get some work done. If your kid misbehaves, take that opportunity to teach them a lesson. If you are at dinner, and the service is less than ideal, but you don’t have anywhere to be, just enjoy the time. When you are faced with challenges, understand that that challenge is temporary and it will pass. About once or twice a week, I will find myself home alone and there is no one who I can rely on for assistance. Tasks that should take a couple of seconds may take me fifteen minutes, not to mention I’m probably burning 400 calories. I can tell myself “this sucks.”  Instead, I tell myself it will be over in a couple of minutes. After that time passes, I celebrate and I’m happy it’s over.

A big part of maximizing a situation or making the most of not-so-great situations is bringing positive emotions or enthusiasm into a situation. Other people want to be uplifted and feel good about themselves. Its' easy for me to be a curmudgeon all the time. I can look at everything that I can’t do. If I do that, I don’t bring any positive energy to my life. Everybody attracts other people who have similar energy. A big part of success is to attract others who have positive energy that motivates and empowers you.  Part of your job is to bring energy that inspires other amazing people.

Serving Others or Yourself

Part of life and amazing success is to serve others and to serve yourself. Every job that you do directly or indirectly serves multiple human beings. We are in each other’s lives to make each other’s lives better. The more that you can serve, the more amazing success you will have. Many people want others to serve them without serving others.  Part of the process is serving yourself because the better you can serve yourself, the better you can serve others. Taking care of your health, your mindset, and developing yourself as a person can help you in other facets of your life. For example, being committed when you are working out or reading a book or putting a plan together helps you be amazing.

Amazing is a Habit

Being amazing is a habit that needs constant refining. It’s challenging to always be amazing. It’s challenging to be amazing when there is traffic on the freeway. It’s challenging to be amazing when nothing goes right and everything goes wrong. People are only amazing when the sun is shining and nothing has gone wrong. Even when this happens, some people nit-pick. Challenges and obstacles are always going to be there.  However, in order to quickly turn any less-than-ideal situation around, be present and just show up.

Woody Allen was right when he said that 80 percent of life is just showing up. However, showing up is not arriving and saying, “here I am.”  It is arriving and maximizing the opportunities for your life and the lives of others. It’s being enthusiastic to really impact your life and the lives of others. It’s about taking good situations and making them great.  It’s about taking horrible situations and turning them around.  

Summary:

To reach amazing success, you have to master the art of being present and living in the moment. This will allow you to make the best out of situations and develop amazing habits.