Step Up!

There’s a moment in every adult life when a single word rearranges something inside you. Not loudly. Not dramatically. Just a quiet internal shift, like a chair being pulled closer to the table of who you’re becoming. For me, that word was reliable.

“Wanting the ball when the game is on the line.”

I heard that phrase while listening to Jim Rohn. Later, I discovered it actually came from Coach Jimmy McGinty in the 2000 sports movie The Replacements. But the source didn’t matter as much as the message:

no hiding, no passing the buck.

Something in me sat up.

It felt like a call to character building, to integrity, to dependability. And strangely, it echoed one of the biggest lessons from my recent short employment at a pharmacy: being reliable.

There were days when the entire workflow depended on someone simply showing up on time; actually, almost every day is like that anyway. Each phase is highly dependent on the other. One morning, a staff member overslept and arrived late; it was very stressful for the other staff on duty, who had to shuttle faxes, patients at drop-off and pick-up, dispense prescriptions, and still check them. Another day, the pharmacy key went missing because the closing staff in the main store misplaced it. The next morning, the shift nearly collapsed before the person with the spare key arrived, forty‑five minutes after opening time. By then, the queue was snaking, the phones were ringing nonstop, the printer was spitting out faxes like it had a personal vendetta, and the air felt thick with pressure.

Later, when the team lead addressed us, my brain caught the word reliable the way a goalie catches a ball; everything else blurred. It struck me differently.

Being reliable.  

As in: someone knowing they can count on me. Someone being at ease because they trust I won’t let them down.

Wow.

Before that moment, the idea of someone depending on me felt heavy. Even as a wife and mum, I sometimes wrestled with the fear of not being enough. Over time, I grew into reliability at home, but in my career and external commitments? I quietly dreaded it. And the outcomes… varied. (A story for another day.)

But that day at the pharmacy changed something.

It became a challenge.

A call.

Or maybe a deep desire.

Actually, it became a need.

A need to step up.

And it had to begin with me.

Step up for myself. Stop breaking promises to myself. Re‑prioritize my commitments. Dream again. Show up for my own life with the same reliability I want others to feel from me.

Even my “one apple or one smoothie per day” has become non‑negotiable. Sometimes I take both. Why say no to a double dose of healthy yumminess?

This is my season of stepping up.

Not loudly.

Not perfectly.

But intentionally, beginning with the small, daily choices that whisper, “I can count on me.”

So here’s my gentle nudge to you:

What is one small promise you can keep to yourself today, something tiny, doable, and meaningful, that reminds you that you can count on you?

Start there.

Step up there.

Your future self is already smiling.