The Power of Showing Up
The Art of Applied Visual Thinking
The official newsletter of
Applied Visual Thinking SUPERHEROES.
Vol. 7 No. 2 January 23, 2026
The Power of Showing Up: Maintenance Discipline for Your Visual Practice
Remember when we talked about the three types of discipline? How some days feel like brushing your teeth, some like stretching into something new, and some like coming home after too long away?
Let's dive deeper into that first one—maintenance discipline—because it might be the most underestimated practice of all.
Maintenance discipline isn't flashy. It won't wow anyone on social media. You're not learning something mind-blowing or creating your magnum opus. You're just showing up. Again. And that's exactly why it's powerful.
When I took my first mindfulness meditation class, the instructor told us that the most important thing was to "take your seat," meaning "just show up." The coolest thing about establishing a good maintenance routine is that the nourishment can overflow. Some days I feel "locked in" and others totally distracted. Showing up is good enough. The patience I show myself on the distracted days might just spill over towards others who might be less than focused.
Think of it this way: your visual thinking practice is like a garden. Maintenance discipline is the watering. Not every session needs to be a harvest or a replanting. Most days, you're just keeping things alive. And alive is exactly where growth starts.
Five Ways to Practice Maintenance Discipline
Here are five micro-practices that keep your visual thinking engine running. Pick the one that fits your life right now.
1. The Morning Brain Dump (5 minutes)
Before you check your phone, grab your sketchbook and draw three things: something you're thinking about, something you're feeling, and something you need to remember today. No judgment, no fancy technique. Just capture. This keeps your hand moving and your visual brain engaged while building a record of your days.
2. The One-Icon-Three-Ways Practice (3 minutes)
Choose one concept you're working with—maybe it's "growth," "connection," or "deadline." Draw it three different ways. Circle, triangle, arrows? Literal, metaphor, abstract? This tiny practice builds your visual vocabulary without demanding perfection. It's like scales for a musician—foundational and surprisingly meditative.
3. Keep Your Tools Where You'll Use Them
This isn't even a practice—it's environmental design. Put a sketchbook and pen by your coffee maker. Keep markers on your desk, not in a drawer. Tuck a small notebook in your bag. When the friction to start drops, showing up gets easier. Your maintenance practice lives or dies by how easy it is to begin.
4. The "Good Enough" Sketch (7 minutes)
Once a day, capture something visual from your work: a meeting takeaway, a project status, a decision tree. But here's the key—it doesn't need to be good. It needs to be done. Your maintenance practice isn't about impressing anyone. It's about staying in relationship with your visual thinking skills.
5. The End-of-Day Reflection Doodle (5 minutes)
Before bed, draw a simple visual of your day. Not a journal entry—a single image. A timeline? A weather map? A mountain you climbed? This practice closes your day with intention and keeps your visual thinking active even when life is busy. Plus, looking back at these over weeks or months reveals patterns you'd otherwise miss.
Why This Matters Beyond Your Sketchbook
Here's the thing about maintenance discipline: it's not just about visual thinking. It's a template for how you show up for anything that matters.
My amazing yoga instructor Barbara Lyon reminds me about ways to practice both "on and off the mat." Building strength, flexibility and balance, for example, carries over into navigating the challenges posed by living in a climate with snow and ice in winter.
The concept of moderation/wise use of energy (Brahmacharya) from Ashtanga yoga could look a little like suggestion #4 above, The "Good Enough" Sketch.
- Your body needs maintenance: regular movement, consistent sleep, daily nourishment.
- Your relationships need maintenance: check-ins, small gestures, showing up even when it's inconvenient.
- Your career needs maintenance: skill upkeep, network nurturing, steady contribution.
- Your mental health needs maintenance: boundaries, rest, small acts of self-compassion.
- When you practice maintenance discipline in your visual thinking, you're training yourself for this larger truth: sustainability beats intensity every time. The person who sketches for 5 minutes a day will go further than the person who binge-draws for 4 hours once a month.
- Most things worth doing don't need you to be a hero every day. They need you to show up consistently. To water the garden. To stay in the game.
Maintenance discipline teaches you that staying in relationship with something is more important than perfection. That small promises kept compound into transformation. That showing up is its own form of care.
Your Turn
This week, try one maintenance practice. Just one. Don't overthink it. Don't make it fancy. Just show up.
QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK: "What if I stopped waiting for the perfect moment and just started keeping my promise to show up?"
Here's a truth worth sketching: the most valuable thing you can do isn't always the most impressive thing. Sometimes it's the smallest thing, done consistently.
Your visual practice doesn't need you to be extraordinary today. It just needs you to be there.
WHERE DO YOU NEED TO JUST SHOW UP THIS WEEK?
Next time: Growth Discipline—where we talk about the good kind of uncomfortable.
Share with a friend
