Do You Believe the Famous Quote “80 Percent of Success is Showing Up”?
As I was listening to a podcast today, the guest used one of the quotes I hate most to justify her point.
80% of success is showing up
~Woody Allen
I cringe each time I hear someone say this. Sometimes I may even clinch a fist. However, today I turned over a new leaf. I learned not to hate this quote (that much) anymore.
After all, the reason why I did hate this quote so much is because I thought it was a flat out lie. Any average Joe can simply show up and that won’t make them 80% on their way to success. But that’s obvious. So, after all these years of hating this obvious interpretation today I’ve decided to give this quote a second chance using an alternative perspective.
Unquestionably, the deciding factor on whether anyone should take this quote seriously is in how you define “showing up”. Moreover, “showing up” as I now define it as a mental skills coach corelates directly with the adage that (at least) 80% of sports is mental.
Therefore, “showing up” is really just a pithy way of summing up the process of doing the work to show up prepared mentally to do your best work. Showing up for success is not just tying your shoes, it’s tying your shoes the way John Wooden would teach you to do it.
First, put your socks, slowly with care, over your toes… Now, move your socks up here…and here…smooth out all the wrinkles…nice and tight…take your time…Then lace your shoes from the bottom, carefully, slowly, getting each pass nice and tight…snug! snug! snug! snug!”
If that’s the interpretation of showing up, then yes, I believe this quote is true.