The 7 Habits of Highly Impactful People - Habit #3: Presence

How do you show up in the world?

A big question.

Your impact is intimately tied with your presence. How you show up takes your impact vision one important step forward.

Think deeply about your response to this question: how do I want to show up? What kind of qualities would I want to demonstrate that are in natural alignment with my impact vision?

• The way I want to treat my family, my friends, my team, my clients

• The kind of energy I want to bring to different situations: do I want to be someone who drains energy or someone who brings energy?

• Do I want to contribute fear or love to a situation?

What do you think of this last question? Impact is grounded in love – love for yourself, for others, and for the world. When you come from that place of love, how do you want to show up?

I find that a deeply meaningful question. The goal is to show up authentically, giving your best as a human being. Think about what expressing your best self means to you. While none of us is perfect, the intention with which you show up makes a difference.

In her book Rising Strong, author Brené Brown writes that life is better if we show up thinking that others are doing the best they can. This strongly resonated with me and I felt it was a profound truth.

Does believing that others are doing their best make your life better or somebody else’s life better?

Let’s do a practical exercise that will help you start to think about how you want to show up. Give yourself some dedicated time to do this. Write down the first words that come to your mind to describe the ways you want to show up in the different areas of your life:

• Your business – with your team and clients/customers

• Your personal life – with your family and friends

• Your community – with your neighbors

In fact, let’s go a little deeper. For example, in your business, think about how you want to show up in your marketing campaigns, be it in offline mode such as face-to-face meetings, or online, in emails to your suppliers or clients/customers. Social media is another important area where you can decide how you want to show up.

Are you finding it hard to come up with words to describe the ways you want to show up? This is where Habits #1 and #2 of highly impactful people come in handy. Clarity about your values as well as your impact vision will give you words to begin.

Presence, how you show up in the world, is about being authentic and committing to the impact vision that you have created for yourself. It is also deliberately taking actions that align with the first two habits.