Show your work and commit to the practice [Leadership development series #2]

This past week, I'll admit that I didn't do a ton of reading to develop myself as a leader. I did a good amount of writing on the computer, for which I credit starting last week with a blog, but not so much in the reading department. A few days ago, I started wondering about what exactly I would write for next post and feeling internal pressure to make time to read one of the ~3 leadership books I'm working on right now so I had something to write.

SPOILER: I edited next week's podcast and celebrated a friend's big grant win. Reading was not had.

But I made this public commitment to writing this blog. And there may in fact be 1.2 people that read the blog (if you count me as one person), but what matters is that I made a commitment to learn and share the struggles of said leveling up.

And motivation is one of them.

One of the books I'm reading is Show Your Work, in which the author talks about being an amateur and being willing to contribute something rather than nothing. So here I am, being transparent about the fact that this week wasn't an ideal one for the commitment I made to pushing forward on this project. But I still showed up for myself and the gig. Seth Godin's The Practice talks about that, too. Showing up for what Godin refers to as the practice of creating (and then shipping), regardless of the circumstances because that's the work of a creative in the broadest, most generous definition of the term. 

You make things because that's what you do, you create. Even when you feel like the well is dry or you haven't gassed up the tank enough, you show up, you do the thing, and you keep the streak going.