EPISODE 224: Why Showing Up Is a Muscle — And How to Build It
Showing up is not something that just happens. It's not a personality trait some people have and others don't. It's a muscle — and like any muscle, it has to be trained, worked, and maintained. Not just when you're in crisis, not just when the deadline is breathing down your neck, but every single day, whether things feel easy or hard, whether you're feeling inspired or completely over it.
I've been watching this play out in real time with my own clients lately — people who are smart, talented, and deeply committed to their work, and who still find themselves backing out at the last minute, going dark when things get hard, or waiting until they feel ready before they take the next step. And what I keep coming back to is this: the inner work, the nervous system awareness, the mindset shifts, the healing — all of it is real and all of it matters. But none of it does anything without the muscle that makes you actually show up and do the thing.
In this episode I'm getting into what I'm calling the show up muscle — what it is, why it's non-negotiable, and what it actually takes to build it. I'm talking about the daily practices that create resilience before you need it, the difference between knowing you should do something and actually doing it, and why at a certain point, healing is a choice. There's also something I want to say about compare and despair, about the "show must go on" mentality that I grew up with, and about why confidence is not something you think your way into — it's something you build by doing the thing you're most afraid to do.
Reasons to tune in:
Why showing up is a muscle — and why you have to build it before you need it, not just when everything feels like it's falling apart
The difference between doing the inner work and actually moving forward — and how endless healing work can become its own form of staying stuck
Why confidence isn't something you build by thinking about doing the thing — it's built by actually doing it, even when it feels terrible
What the "show must go on" mentality really means for coaches, creatives, and service-based business owners
Why the best time to build your practices is when everything is going well — and what my husband, the psychoanalyst, has to say about that
How to tell the difference between something genuinely dangerous and something your nervous system just wants you to avoid
Why compare and despair is something you manage, not something you cure — and what that management actually looks like in real life
The kinds of support only you can give yourself — and the kinds that require other people around you
Life is hard. And there is always something you can do about it. This episode is about building the muscle that makes that true.
Want to discover some of the incredible coaches and experts in the Passionate & Prosperous community? Check out the Passionate & Prosperous Client Showcase at staceybrassrussell.com/the-passionate-prosperous-showcase.
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