The art of showing up

In the book, Atomic Habits, James Clear wisely shares a principle he calls “the art of showing up.”

He tells the story of a man who wanted to establish a habit of going to the gym every day. So he spent the first six weeks limiting himself to only five minutes in the gym.

He’d go to the gym every day for five minutes, and then force himself to leave!

Why wouldn’t he just stay if he was already there?

Because he wanted to establish the habit of just showing up.

As Clear states, “You cannot optimize what you don’t have.”

People focus too much on the end-game, rather than starting. Most of the friction to success is getting yourself going.