How to Show Up Every Day: Strong Process Goals Create Great Habits

On our baseball team, there’s a saying we have…”Show up every day with hustle, effort, attitude, and teamwork. Bring the HEAT.”

But it’s hardly a unique sentiment.

Woody Allen said, “80% of success is just showing up.”

For me, that’s the baseline—eighty percent.

You should want to take it even higher. And if you don’t want to, why did you show up in the first place?

What Does it Mean to Show Up?

Show Up. Every day. With Hustle. Effort. Attitude. Teamwork.

There’s a lot to unpack there. Showing up is great. But show up every day and do what, exactly? It can’t be enough to show up and sit in the lobby. To sit in a chair in front of your screen. Or even to stand on a baseball field.

Here’s how we apply it to the baseball team and how you can apply it to your online business.

Step 1: Pick a Key Area of Improvement

What do you want for your business? Is it to make $100,000 a month? To turn your side-hustle into your full-time gig? Make enough to take a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ vacation every 3 or 4 months?

This is your outcome goal. And it is where most goals stop and start.

At one point or another, these were all goals of mine. And they may be goals of yours now.

But you have to set a target. And you have to be specific about that target. Take turning your side-hustle into your full-time gig as a goal. How much money would that take? Put some numbers on every goal. Make them measurable. In the next step, we will plan to move closer to that goal.

Step 2: Make a Commitment to the Process and Then…

For us, every goal is an equation.

y = f(x)

In English, this says your outcome (y) is a function of your process inputs (f(x)).

So in this step, you’re going to lay out the process you will use to reach your outcome goal created in step 1.

It might be improving your conversion rates. Or it might be getting more leads. It could be making more organic posts.

These are your process goals. But it’s not enough to take these process goals at this first level.

You also have to take these things and list the 3 to 5 actions you will take to make those happen.

Then commit to yourself to make these actions happen. Put dates around them. And you show up every day to make the magic happen.

This blog post, for example, is one of my action plans to create more content. I don’t know which version you’re reading, but for sure, it’s gone through a few updates.

Because action – even imperfect action – is better than no action. And one of my hang-ups is my perfectionism.

So I force myself to write 1500 words daily and get them out there.

A specific, measurable, and time-bound goal.

I can (and do) edit later (another process goal).

Step 3: Make a Commitment to Others

This is your accountability. And it’s more powerful.

Walk back to what I say to my baseball teams. Show up. Hustle. Effort. Attitude. These are our high-level process goals. Their commitment to themselves. Each player has specific things they need to focus on to get better. And that’s what they pour their hustle, effort, and attitude into those areas.

And then there’s teamwork. They are accountable to each other to make sure they are working hard. And to make sure that their teammates are working hard. To make sure they “show up” every day.

It works like this in the business world as well.

Depending on what I am working on, I tell either my wife or I tell my head of tech and development. And sometimes I tell my kids. And I ask them to hold me accountable. To occasionally ask me if I took action. To nudge me in the right direction.

Find an accountability partner. Give them your goals and your deadlines. Make them hold your feet to the fire.

You can even hire people to do it for you. I have coaches that I pay because it puts extra skin in the game. Now I’m wasting my money if I don’t take action.

Mike Trout has a hitting coach. Michael Jordan was accountable to Phil Jackson and his teammates.

CEOs are accountable to their shareholders and their boards of directors.

All successful people are accountable to someone. Who are you going to be accountable to?

Step 4: Show Up Every Day and Take Action to Create Unstoppable Habits

Now that you’ve laid it out. Take action. An early coach I had in my first ‘mastermind’ would say, “Take massive, focused action.” It’s some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten.

So now I am passing that advice on to you.

Take massive, focused action. Hustle. Effort. Attitude. Teamwork. Every. Single. Day.

By showing up every day, the action becomes a habit. And once it’s a habit, hitting your goals becomes automatic.

And once that happens? Boom. It’s an explosion of productivity.

You’ll start to realize that you can do anything. And once this barrier breaks down… true financial and lifestyle freedom is at your fingertips.

There’s nothing that can stop you.

Here’s the process to follow again.

1. Goal to Process.
2. Process to Commitment.
3. Commitment to Habit.
4. Habit to Unstoppable.
5. Repeat.

Show up every day and succeed.