“You do it because the doing of it is the thing. The doing is the thing. The talking and worrying and thinking about it is not the thing.” ~Amy Poehler

How often do we allow our fear to stand in the way of our showing up? How often do we find ourselves saying “but I don’t know how”? or “I’m too old, young, short, tall, overqualified, underqualified.” Somewhere along the way we have bought into the story that says we can’t. And the justification for buying the story is “I don’t know how”. So, in our supposed need to know how every puzzle piece fits before we even open the box we decide it’s better to never even start the puzzle in the first place. We set it aside with all the other puzzles that have cobwebs and mold gathered on them from years of sitting stagnant in the corner of our hearts. Oh, sure, every now and again we glance at them over there collecting dust. There are probably some we’ve forgotten ever existed, but every once in awhile we think “I’ll dust that one off today” and as we are about to walk in the direction of our dreams the voice that keeps us small says “but what will you do? How will it look? What if you don’t know which direction to go? What if you do it wrong or fail?” And we become paralyzed with the fear that we allow to hold us back from anything that will take us out of our comfort zone. What we have forgotten is that there is always another player. The Universe knows where every puzzle piece fits and if we would just take the puzzle out of the box and enjoy the game the Universe would get right in there with us and divinely guide us. We don’t need to know, can’t possibly know with our limited human mind how it’s all going to fit together. But the Universe knows and is guiding us. All we need to do is to keep looking at the picture on the box cover (holding steady the vision of what we want) and then show up to the game.

At first this seems like efforting, striving, climbing the ladder. The need to be better, more than the limited version of ourselves that we see in the mirror each day. But this idea that we could possibly be better or more than we are now keeps us in the mindset of “not enough”. Back to the cycle of one step forward toward our dreams and one step back because fear says we aren’t worthy of them.

One day we stop, there are a number of ways that make us pause and recognize who we really are, my experience with this remembering has occurred on the yoga mat. This is where I heard over and over again that all I need and want exists within and I realized after many years of practice that the desire to be more isn’t because I’m broke or need to be fixed but because I am already whole. Because I’m the perfection of the Universe manifested as a tiny speck in this beautiful world. And that by simply showing up, regardless if i know how or what it’s supposed to look like, I’m right in there playing along with the Universe. Holding steady the vision of that perfectly captured photograph on the box cover I show up, from where I am, with what I have in the moment, I show up, because the doing is the thing.  

Poehler goes on to say; “Every day we just get out of bed and show up. However unprepared or not ready our spinning mind tells us we are, we just show up. We put our feet on the floor, we hug our children or set a boundary with them, we say yes and figure it out later, we apologize or wish someone well, we pick up the phone and make a call (yes a call), we look in the mirror and say ‘I’m doing this today because I love myself’.”

“The doing of it is the thing”