There are days when everything in you says, “Not today.” When your energy is low, your motivation is in first gear, and your mind yells “What’s the point?!” or “I don’t care anymore.” On those days, it’s easy to disappear and avoid the world. To skip the to-do list, cancel the project, or crawl back into bed. We’ve all been there and yes, sometimes we do need to shut it down for a couple of days, and we do need vacations. But here’s something I’ve learned the hard way: The most powerful changes in life don’t come from perfect days—they come from the days you show up anyway and, as Nike used to say, “Just Do It.”
This took me a long time to accept and apply in my life. I expected, no, internally demanded, every day to be perfect or nearly perfect and felt like I had let myself and others down when it wasn’t. I expected to start every day at 5 a.m. No, not wake up at 5, be going at top speed at 5 a.m. Try and sustain that during the dark, freezing mornings of winter with an icy wind howling and rattling the windows. Not anymore, not for a long time. All the experiences and life lessons I have gained are serving me better now than had my life been smooth sailing. I’ve had great jobs that I loved and done jobs that I hated just to keep money coming in during rough patches. I’ve washed dishes, bussed tables, done roofing work including the tear off, cleaned office buildings, retail stores, and toilets at 2 a.m., and hand-bombed rocks into large baskets all day for weeks for flood control, among various jobs. I’ve overcome many things, including numerous bouts of depression, anxiety, and a few things I won’t get into here, but maybe I will some other time. I’ve changed stuff I could and learned to accept things I can’t change, albeit reluctantly so. This is not to brag or lament but to say I speak from experience.
Motivation is nice when it’s there, but it’s not reliable. It’s tied to mood, food you consumed, weather, sleep, blood sugar, and a million other unpredictable things. Waiting for it can lead to weeks or years of stagnation. You don’t need motivation. You need a reason. A purpose bigger than how you feel in the moment. That might be your health. Your freedom. Your peace of mind. Your family. Your dream. Your spiritual healing. Your integrity. Even if you don’t feel “fired up” and wake up late, you can still take one small action today. And that one action leads to two, three, and maybe more. You’re building something, even if it doesn’t look like much today.
Showing up doesn’t mean going full throttle every day. Sometimes, showing up means sending one email, walking for 10 minutes instead of 60, and eating one healthy meal when you’ve had a rough week. But showing up, especially when you don’t feel like it at first, keeps the fire and the habit alive. It’s about keeping the commitment alive. It tells your mind that “I am still in this, and I am in it for the long haul.”
Consistency wins where intensity burns out. The writer who keeps writing, even a paragraph, when uninspired, improves. The entrepreneur who sends emails during dry spells still builds momentum. The professional tennis player who still hits the practice court for only half an hour rather than the usual two or three, even when he doesn’t feel like it. The person rebuilding their life who keeps moving forward and finds strength they didn’t know they had.
The hardest part is that showing up often feels like it’s not working. You’re not seeing the changes fast enough, and you’re not getting the work, the feedback, or any response that tells you you are putting in the time and effort. It feels like you’re pouring into a black hole and not even making a dent. But that’s when it matters most. You’re developing something under the surface: resilience, discipline, a steely resolve, character, and inner strength. Growth happens quietly and slowly, and the weight you’re lifting or losing might feel small today. The weight you want to lose, especially if it’s a big number, seems like a Mount Everest-like task, but over time, you’ll realize it was never really about the weight. It’s about progressing one step and day at a time, and it was about becoming the kind of person who doesn’t quit. If you show up every day, the desired result will come.
If you take one thing from this, let it be this: You don’t need to be perfect and won’t be. You just need to be present. You don’t have to crush it. You just have to keep going. You’ll have bad days, days when you are dragging and that one draft you write feels like you’re writing War and Peace, and days when you stumble and screw-up. That’s human. But the fact that you keep returning to the work, to the healing, to the effort—that’s what changes your life. And if you’re in a season where it feels like you’re crawling? Keep crawling. Don’t discount small victories. They count.
You don’t have to wait for the stars to align or for motivation to appear at your door. Show up messy. Show up tired, irritable, and wearing yesterday’s shirt. Show up uncertain. Just show up. Because the person who shows up—especially when they don’t feel like it—is already ahead of 90 percent of people still waiting to “feel ready.”
John Berkovich Talks 