Showing Up: The Secret Sauce of Success

Showing Up: The Secret Sauce of Success

There I was, minding my own business, when ‘Show up’, well, showed up in my mind.

‘Who said that?’ asked the familiar voice in my head. ‘Einstein? Oprah? Mickey Mouse?’

Comedian, writer and filmmaker Woody Allen is popularly credited with this nugget, proposing success is 80 percent attributable to simply showing up. I happen to agree – showing up is a key ingredient in the ‘secret sauce of success’- it can result in extraordinary and previously unimagined options.

What Does ‘Showing Up’ Look Like?

Showing up isn’t just saying ‘PRESTO’ and there you are – all shown up. For me, ‘showing up’ means:  

• Doing what you said you would do, because you said you would.
• Stepping in, though it might be easier (and safer) to stay out.
• Trusting there is positive intent behind whatever force has placed this before you.

My ‘show up’ opportunity came when a well-meaning neighbor, who knew I was an educator seeking new horizons, ‘reasoned’ if I could teach little kids, I could teach ‘big’ kids too. So, he arranged for a ‘headhunter’ to contact me to discuss some job teaching Wall Street bankers to use computers for business. Technology was just rearing its head in business, taking bigger and bigger ‘bytes’.

Three things almost kept me from showing up for the interview. First was, at that time, I’d never been in the same room with a computer, much less taught someone how to use it. Second, anything to do with banking seemed (yawn) dull and stodgy, and third, ‘HEADHUNTER?!?’ While I’ve not always used my head, I’ll keep it, just in case - thanks very much.

But show up I did. Fast forward several decades, I look back on the blur I call my corporate career and on that interview I came so close to cancelling. I realize now how lucky I have been to help organizations mesh messy technology with human smarts.

Making Magic

Showing up is real magic without the poof of smoke. It’s bringing your whole, powerful self - your physical, spiritual and emotional essence - to meet the moment in the moment. It’s embracing whatever happens because you took that potion of courage, enhanced by a dash of curiosity.

But, as with most metaphysical activities, incantations, or special words, are useful for bringing the magic alive. Here are some words that when said aloud can make 'magic' happen:

Whose value is this, anyway? When coaching emerging leaders, I have them talk about their core values and examine which propel them forward with positivity and which snag their best intentions. Sometimes, our values and beliefs turn out to be the net results of social, cultural, economic and emotional imprints. Illusions can easily take the place of real values and needs so, the real ‘we’ might not make a personal appearance. It’s important to know whose value you are living your life by.

Fear Begone: A Japanese proverb says, ‘Fear is only as deep as the mind allows.’ I confess to not showing up many, many years ago to defend someone unjustly accused (forgive me, Marge, wherever you are) in fear of my being rejected, isolated, ridiculed by others. It took losing a valued friend and advocate to figuratively ‘sober’ me up. The phrase, “You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone’ is a meaningful and vivid reminder to me of why I MUST show up.

‘And for my next trick…’: I like to know what makes people press their ‘Show Up’ button and take risk. Visualizing a single, foot-wide, dark gray (and slippery) steel beam, spanning between two towering, snow-covered mountains - no net beneath, no balancing pole to help - I have people contemplate what they would cross that beam for - what they would risk life and limb to achieve, acquire or save.

In Life, we usually don’t step onto that slippery beam voluntarily. Rather, we get pushed or drawn onto it, often by something we sense would make us whole. In the years since, I have realized that what drew me to show up for that interview was how much I value enabling the life-giving process of learning, for kids, for adults, for me.

Showing up is all about values and the lessons we choose to engage in, or not. What gets you to fully ‘show up’?

About Dr. Pat Baxter: Globally-experienced, bilingual educator and organizational consultant, Dr. Pat Baxter uses her extensive coaching and consulting experience to help leaders lead high-impact culture change while retaining valuable diverse talent.

Her number one tool for developing leaders? Emotion! Certified to train and coach on emotional intelligence (EI), Pat has been publicly recognized for her work in EI helping leaders, especially diverse leaders in mid-tier to COO levels, to understand and creatively use the positive power of emotion to motivate and mobilize talent and teams.

Pat holds a doctorate in Organizational Leadership; her research focused the effects of EI on the conflict styles of HR professionals. She also holds a Master’s and a Bachelor’s degree, both in Education from City University of New York.

She is an avid collector of fortune cookie slips (note picture at top) and is finalizing her book, ‘It’s YOUR Fortune, Cookie’?, for holiday gifting.