Keep Showing Up "Even if you Suck"

1.2K followers

Updated 8 years ago

How good do you think you are right now? Probably not that good. So does it mean you would back off from what you're doing and do something else? Would you hide again in the dark and don't wanna be seen?

Think again...

If you look way back into your life, you will see a different picture of you back then. Go back to the very first skill that you've learned as a child: Walking.

You had to fall down numerous times because you did not know how to balance back then. You would cry and get wounded with every fall you've made. Remember the bandage and whatever disinfectant that your mother or father applied to your skin and the pain that came along with it?

How did you feel during those times? Did you say to yourself, "I don't want to walk/run anymore" or "I don't want to play with my friends anymore"? Of course not! You kept on playing and have fun despite the fact that you will fall down again the next time around. You had no fear back then.

And yet when you ask a typical adult of doing something new like investing in stocks or starting an online business or writing blog posts he or she feels engulfed in fear. Now does this seem to reflect you? You're so fearful of doing new things and are afraid of looking bad in front of the masses.

Worry not, I am here to give you words of wisdom that simply came from my teaching experience. It all has to do with showing up.

My Personal Transformation Outside of School

I remember back then when I was a professor, going back to the first week of my teaching career and boy was it terrifying and felt like it's slowly eating away my soul.

I could still remember the first time I introduced myself to the class while being engulfed with fear. I could also remember the jitters the first time I started a lecture and wrote in the blackboard. There were many first times, and I could tell you that I literally sucked.

Back then, I was a painfully shy person, always at the back of the class. I can say that I'm the nerdy type of guy who just did one thing: solving engineering problems. You see I was a former quiz bee contender and that I'm a strong bet for winning competitions. I racked up 6 champions, 1 first runner-up and 1 second runner-up.

In short, I was an incredibly smart person (it really makes no sense to brag it but anyways). I even became a topnotcher in the board exam in the Philippines and finished 2nd place. Boy, I was very lucky and so blessed by God. There is only one problem though: I lacked street smarts.

In other words, by the time I went out of school, all of my achievements are nothing. Sure, I would land a nice job, but I strongly felt that something was missing. Thanks to my mentor who pointed it out to me.

Now Back to The Professor Thing...

There were many problems that I had with my first week of the job as follows:

I was speechless
I was very shy
I was lacking words
There were many eyes watching me
I was literally panicking from within
I was jittering
I was fearful of messing up
I might get ashamed
I didn't know the first step
I lacked preparation
I was afraid that my lectures might be wrong
My mornings felt heavy
I felt like hiding and not attending
I might not be able to answer some questions
Other professors were observing me
I felt very pressured (knowing that I'm a topnotcher)
In other words, I literally SUCKED

Luckily, my mentor was there to push me to teach in front even if I was afraid of showing up. So I did show up. In just a few months, everything went better and I was literally having fun! Hooray!

I really beg you my friends, JUST KEEP SHOWING UP

Forget about writer's block. Forget about lacking credibility or expert status. Forget about not knowing Computer or Marketing subjects. Forget about not having traffic. Forget about not ranking high in Google Search. Forget about the competition. Forget about criticisms coming from your family, friends, neighbors, classmates, and most importantly, from yourself. There is only one thing you need to do right now, and that is to show up.

Appearing in the radar is the first thing you need to do as a beginner. Learning Email Marketing, SEO, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media, PPC or Content Creation are very big subjects to take. You will most likely be having a hard time making money online if you don't learn these skills. And I promise you, it can be overwhelming to everyone who's just getting started.

But that doesn't mean you're gonna back away just because it's hard. Everyone who has succeeded here in WA had to learn each of these subjects the hard way and they never gave up. Give yourself the permission to start small and go slow, then keep showing up everyday to embed the learnings into your head. From there you can then stack up on that knowledge and you will be surprised by how much you know.

If you've come this far, I just want to say thank you for reading my lengthy blog post. Every time you wake up in the morning, make sure that you show up and do anything that will move you forward to success. Don't give up, you've got the whole Wealthy Affiliate community supporting you.

Wishing you all the success and riches,

Dominic