You know that that niggling feeling you get when there is something you *know* you should be doing?   Those things that hang around in the back of your mind, like:

  • running a retreat
  • niching into sports medicine
  • working with just teenagers
  • writing a book

But then a part of your brain goes, “But, who am I to do that?  I don’t have the skills.”

Or, “It’s not really associated with what I do already.”

And, “It’s not gonna get me the same type of results as what I’m currently doing.”

Or, “But there’s no guarantee that if I do that thing I won’t fail, be found wrong, or get trolled.”

What if. . .

What if… Serena Williams didn’t show up for her tournaments?
What if… she came down with amnesia and completely forgot she had all these amazing skills and talents.
What would she do if she forgot how to play tennis?
What if all of that just disappeared and all of her memories of anything to do with who she were just gone?

She might find a job at the local McDonald’s. Maybe you’d see her walking down the street on a phone comparing herself against other people on Instagram, talking about Netflix and what’s the next show to watch. If you saw her going to work at McDonald’s, what would you think?

You’d be going, “What!?! How can we get her back on the court? We need to remind her of who she is and that she created a movement!”

She has:

  • inspired women all over the globe
  • been a role model for women of colour everywhere
  • paved the way for pay gap issues
  • shown what’s possible for any female in a high profile position

There are so many extraordinary things that we wouldn’t have access to if she hadn’t shown up on the court.

I was also thinking about Greta Thunberg, the sixteen-year-old who’s doing all these amazing things for the planet at the moment and getting everyone riled up about how poorly our generation (I’m 40, so my generation!) has been ignoring the fact that our environmental situation is as dire as it is.  So this 16-year-old shows up and starts protests, speaks multiple languages, and says what others are afraid to say.

Imagine if she didn’t show up? 

A massive movement has started right now and it’s happening because she showed up.

And, yes she’s dealing with the other things that go with that, like getting trolled and insulted.  But the movement is happening because she’s appearing for it.

What does it mean for you to not show up?

What does it really mean for the planet for YOU not to show up?

I’ve got some stats for you:

87% of deaths are associated with 8 different chronic diseases

That means 9 out of 10 people are dying because of diseases that we have the opportunity to give complimentary advice to. And sometimes alternative advice, when it comes to people trying to find health information about their chronic conditions. 87% – that’s huge!

If we don’t show up for that the only information they have access to is advertised websites with random information that’s been stolen off somebody else’s random information website. Or some old textbook that might not be useful to them at all.

Half of Australians report having one of the eight chronic diseases

Half!  Literally, just walking down the street, 50% of the people that you see have one of these 8 chronic conditions that you know information about. If you don’t show up, you aren’t sharing that information.

145,000 people this year will be newly diagnosed with cancer in Australia

145,000 people newly diagnosed with cancer! Yes, there are pathways in the medical aspect but we have all heard stories about the minefields and challenges that can be really detrimental to somebody’s health when they don’t have the whole picture.  There’s a lot of information about what it takes to actually look after someone through a cancer journey, and ways those people who didn’t get diagnosed with cancer to prevent getting cancer.

That information that’s inside your head? That is the stuff that’s useful to these people.

Of course, not everybody is the same. And here’s the thing.  I may not want to hear preventive medicine from particular types of practitioners or organisations. But I might want to hear it from your unique perspective on:

  • preventive health
  • sports nutrition
  • adrenal health
  • skin conditions
  • fertility
  • particular types of medicinal herbs
  • nutrition
  • holistic lifestyle

Or whatever your version of it is.

Not showing up impacts many – directly and indirectly

Maybe you’ve got a niggling feeling that if you showed up in a particular area, things might be more in alignment for you, might be different for you.

So if you are not showing up and creating that retreat, nicheing down into your specific area of interest, or making that course that’s already in your head, you are impacting hundreds of thousands of people.

It’s not even just directly impacting those people with chronic conditions, cancer, or the one-in-six couples in Australia and New Zealand who have fertility issues. It may not be directly impacting them but it could be directly or indirectly impacting the people who care about them

It could be impacting their workplaces and how they show up at work, or the members of their family around worrying and stress and all of the other things that go with somebody who has a health condition.

You not showing up impacts hundreds of thousands of lives.

So when you’re sitting there at your computer thinking, what if I:

  • do a whole bunch of work, it flops and I don’t make any money from it?
  • publish this controversial Instagram post and then I get trolled?
  • write this book and fail in the long run?

Think instead, What if it goes gangbusters or at least helps one person? What if it helps hundreds of thousands of people directly or indirectly?

Make it simple. Show up for:

  • one Instagram post
  • the first paragraph of your book
  • nicheing into the place where you can be helpful because you have experience and you understand that particular condition

Now showing up costs you money

What would happen if Serena Williams didn’t show up for tennis? Her capability to earn money from all of her sponsorship deals would disappear.

What happens when you don’t show up for something? 

I know what you’re going to say.  “But I’m not Serena Williams.”

She wasn’t Serena Williams before she was Serena Williams, either!  You have a gift and a talent in your particular niche in our profession and in the way you do it.

This is the cool thing about this profession.  You don’t have to just do it one on one. The capability is there to be an amazing educator.

You can be an amazing:

  • tech designer
  • book writer
  • speaker
  • author

Or whatever version that is perfect for you.  At this moment, we have the brilliance to be able to meld exactly all of the bits and pieces of your life into exactly what you want it to be.

And then share it with someone out there waiting for YOU to show up.

Not showing up keeps you from stepping up as a role model

Fun fact – about 86% of the naturopaths, nutritionists, herbalists, and natural health practitioners are women.

The opportunity to step up as a role model in our society as a female right now is extraordinary.

By not showing up in your business, you’re losing out on that opportunity to be a role model for yourself, our profession, other women, and your kids.

Not showing up means missing out on the movement

Ignoring that niggling feeling telling you what you should be doing means you’re missing out on being part of this movement.

There is a professional movement shifting the way the whole world thinks about natural health.  Sometimes we point the finger over to Germany where they’ve got a lot of integrative medicine doctors, or to Canada where there are a lot of natural health universities.

But we have the opportunity to be part of that.  You not showing up dims the light on that.

You have an opportunity to stand as part of it. To be part of this huge wave that’s happening.

Not showing up impacts progress

You not showing up can also impact advances in:

  • technology when it comes to providing natural health services to people
  • medicines
  • remedies
  • and research

If you’re sitting on a pile of experience and you haven’t connected with some of the organisations that do that, we’re missing out on your gift in your talent! You’re not contributing to that body of knowledge when it comes to natural health.

I mean I don’t know where we would be without Culpeper and all of that. Being a herbalist, it’s one of my favs!

If Culpeper hadn’t shown up, then what would have happened? We would never have had the entire wave of herbalism coming from all sorts of different ways of being.

You have the opportunity to contribute that from where you are right now in this timeline of our health, well-being, and natural health.

Not showing up means missing connections

By not stepping up, you are missing out on connections with other practitioners and potentially thousands of clients. ! I helped 7,000 clients in my clinic over five years!

Being able to connect with them, impact their lives and impact the generation after them is massive. You’re missing out on that if you don’t show up for the little things that you think are insignificant.

I’ve had so many clients come to me who said things like,

“I’ve been to everybody. I saw several specialists. I went to a doctor who didn’t understand things. I went to an integrative medicine doctor who was closer. But the way that you described things just clicked with me and that’s what’s changed it for me.”

They were the ones who had lifelong changes. They had conditions they thought they were going to live with forever. And it was just a conversation with me.

I know there are so many of you listening that have had exactly the same experience where just describing it in your way gave that person something.

Sometimes it takes that certain way we hear things or the extra time, that repetition of time, and the way that particular person resonates with you, for it to click. Then the shift happens.

If you don’t show up with your particular:

  • way
  • story
  • empathy
  • gift
  • help in the healing process
  • style of educating

Or whatever is particular to you, they might miss out on it. It might be another multitude of people or years down the track before they get what they need.

You’ve got a gift to give and you need to show up for it.

Not showing up in your business means we miss out on your gift

If you don’t show up for this amazing opportunity that you have as a practitioner in business, we all miss out on your gift and your talent.  We miss out on you living your truth and you being totally in alignment with that.

The reason you studied this in the first place was of a niggling feeling inside you. There was a magical resonance as to why you became a natural health practitioner, why it stood out for you in the first place. There is something inside you that reminds you that you’re a healer, that you can help people.

If you don’t show up for that (and do like I described about Serena Williams), just go and get some random job, be unhappy with your life, and go down a really different path, then we miss the opportunity of the gift that’s you. And you miss the opportunity of living your absolute truth and the reason you got into it in the first place.

I’m going to hop off my soapbox, now. But whatever you’re thinking about – show up for it! Show up for it in the little ways because all of the little micro-steps will get you to your macro step. Even though it feels like it’s going to be such a hard slog to get there, it’s costing you so much more when you don’t show up. And it’s costing us and the world so much more!

So pay the cost of a little time, energy, and possibly a little dash of money to create that thing that you’re actually here to create. 

Take Action

I don’t want you to give up. I’m showing up today because somebody needed to hear this.  I don’t know who needs this but if I don’t show up, somebody who needed to hear this won’t hear it and then the flow-on effect of that is that they might not pass it on to somebody else who needed to hear it. They might not stay in business and help those thousands of people we were just talking about. They might not write that book that is going to be a total game-changer.

I believe in you even if you don’t and I don’t want you to forget that you’ve got those gifts and talents.

Those little niggles are sending you on a ripple effect that I can’t even possibly imagine!