I just finished the book, “Discipline is Destiny: The Power of Self Control” by Ryan Holiday. This is one of a series of (4) books that covers the four virtues of stoic philosophy:
- Courage (bravery, fortitude, honor, sacrifice…)
- Temperance (self-control, moderation, composure, balance…)
- Justice (fairness, service, fellowship, goodness, kindness…)
- Wisdom (knowledge, education, truth, self-reflection, peace…)
He has covered three of the virtues in these books:
- Courage – Courage is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave (2021)
- Temperance – Discipline is Destiny: The Power of Self Control (2022)
- Justice – Right Thing, Right Now: Good Values. Good Character. Good Deeds. (2024)
- Wisdom – Coming soon (in 2025???)…
I decided that I would like to use this blog to share some of the passages that I found most influential for my life. This first passage I will share is, “Just Show Up…”
The brilliance of Thomas Edison was not in his mind. It was something much more ordinary, and often, much less respected. “I’ve got no imagination,” he once said. “I never dream. I’ve created nothing.” If you’re someone who doesn’t like Edison, you might think that this is Edison admitting to stealing his inventions from other, more brilliant inventors like Nikola Tesla. Not quite, but he really did concede that most of the credit belonged to something other than his brain. “The ‘genius’ hangs around his laboratory day and night,” Edison said. “If anything happens, he’s there to catch it; if he wasn’t, it might happen just the same, only it would never be his.”
What he’s talking about is showing up. The incredible, underrated power of clocking in every day, putting your ass in the seat, and the luck this seems to inevitable produce. Edison lived in his laboratory and never missed a day – like (Lou) Gehrig, even when he was sick, when he was tired, or when he was visited by tragedy or disaster. The modern conveniences we can trace to his lab then, owe far more to his body than his brain, to the compounding power of consistency rather than sheer brilliance. It wasn’t about inspiration. It was about getting to work.
Show up and try. Get on the treadmill. Pick up the violin. Answer some emails. Script out some scenes. Reach out to some clients. Read some reports. Lift a couple of weights. Jog one mile. Cross one thing off the to-do list. Chase down a lead. It doesn’t matter what it is; all aspects of our life benefit from this circumscribed kind of discipline. “Just as long as you do something every day, that is the important thing, ” Arnold Schwarzenegger said to people trying to stay in shape. and productive during the endless blur of the pandemic.
Show up…
-
- …when you’re tired.
- …when you don’t have to.
- …even if you have an excuse.
- …even if you’re busy.
- …even if you won’t get recognized for it.
- …even if it’s been kicking your ass lately.
Once something is done, you can build on it. Once you get started, momentum can grow. When you show up, you can get lucky.
Is this still hard? Yes. But the good news is that because it’s hard, most people don’t do it. They don’t show up. They can’t even do one tiny thing a day. So yes, you’re alone, out there on the track in the rain. You’re the only one responding on Christmas. But having the lead is, by definition, a little lonely. This is why it’s quiet in the morning. You have the opportunities all to yourself.
Don’t worry about setting any records…just report for duty. No excuses. And here’s the irony: This is also a way to break records! Consistency is a superpower. Day-to-day willpower is incredibly rare. Lou Gehrig was a solid positional player and a good hitter. But his success really was routed in the fact that he didn’t miss many days of work. It’s quite likely that had he continued at his normal pace and not been stricken with ALS, that he would have put up career numbers that surpassed Babe Ruth’s. (Check out more about Lou Gehrig here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Gehrig).
Gehrig wasn’t just able to show up despite numerous injuries and fatigue. He also had to push through ennui, doubt, and just plain not feeling it. He had slumps, like we all do, but he also understood what they meant. As a minor leaguer, he had struggled at the plate and thought about quitting. The Yankee’s owner sent down a scout to walk Gehrig through the very basic math of a batting average. A good hitter hits .300, and hitting .350 is terrific. Hitting .400 is almost unheard of. What does this translate to? Missing six tries out of ten. A hitter can also go days, weeks, without touching the ball! That’s what the scout told him:
The most important thing a young ball player can learn is that he can’t be good every day.
You don’t have to always be amazing. You do always have to show up. What matters is sticking around for the next at bat. The ability to do that, coupled with the ability to endure what John Steinbeck called “dawdly days” while writing East of Eden – those days when everything seems out of whack, when you’re just not feeling it, when the distractions won’t stop – is the first step to greatness.
Literally.
You cannot be great without the self-discipline to do that. One thing a day adds up. Each day adds up. But the numbers are only interesting if they accumulate in large quantities.
So, remind yourself every day:
“Just show up.”