Your life should be boring on purpose. Here’s why…
I was constantly avoiding boredom until I realized this.
Your life should be boring on purpose.
In fact, I dare say that if your life isn't boring, there's a good chance you're not growing.
This is a really bold statement, I know. You’ll see where I’m coming from in a bit though.
I don’t believe in having regrets because, as Ed Mylett would say, “Everything happens for you and not to you.” However, if I’m being honest, there’s one decision that, if given the chance to reverse right now, I would in a heartbeat.
This mistake I made for several years is, undoubtedly, not unique to myself alone. Countless individuals have made this mistake, and many more are making the same mistake right this second.
Early last year, I noticed a pattern in my life. I had been working very hard for about 2-3 years prior. I sacrificed time with friends, didn’t play any video games, and worked during the weekends. Yet, I didn’t have any results to show for it.
The realization hit me one afternoon when recounting all the pursuits I had undertaken in the last couple of years. I had started businesses, completed multiple courses, read dozens of books, listened to hundreds of podcasts, and watched thousands of YouTube videos. Still... I had nothing. At least that’s how it felt.
As I mentioned earlier, I’m sure I’m not alone in experiencing this. Maybe you've felt the same way too. You’ve been working hard towards your goals but it feels like you’re just moving in circles. All of your hard work goes unnoticed, and honestly, you might as well be doing nothing.
That very afternoon, I became determined to find the root cause of my problem. Reflecting on the stories of successful individuals from the numerous podcasts I had listened to, it didn’t take me long to arrive at a conclusion that, in hindsight, appears rather obvious.
I was constantly avoiding boredom.
Here’s what I learned - To see results, you need the compounding effect of consistency. To maintain consistency, you must show up and do the work repeatedly. To show up repeatedly, you need to be comfortable with boredom.
Therefore, you cannot get results without being comfortable with boredom.
If you’ve ever listened to a successful person, you’ll hear statements like, “I’ve been doing XYZ for many years now.” They boast a track record of pursuing a path for a long time. For business people, they’ve most likely been running the business for multiple years. If they’re highly skilled people, they’ve been practicing that specific skill for years. In essence, they’ve been doing it for a very very very long time.
On paper, it appears logical and straightforward - If you want to make progress, pick something, show up, and do the work for an extended period. However, in reality, this is one of the hardest things to do. Why? Because it is boring!
Building a business day in and day out is boring. Showing up to write every day is boring. Practicing that move for the 100th time is boring. Researching the details of any project is boring.
But here’s the interesting thing: That is how progress works - doing the boring work consistently for a very long time.
Another reason why this is so difficult is because we’re not wired this way. In the age of mainstream social media and short-form content, our natural inclination is to seek quick hits of cheap dopamine, while avoiding the work that truly matters.
We’d rather binge a Netflix series than sit down and finish the chapter of that book we’ve been writing for months. Starting a new seemingly exciting business becomes more appealing than figuring out why the current one isn't working. We might choose to abandon a challenging project in favor of pursuing something new and flashy, rather than persevering through the difficulties.
It’s astonishing how far we, as humans, would go to avoid sitting down and doing the work that truly matters - the boring work.
So how exactly do you get better at doing the boring work?
Come to the understanding that, as counterintuitive as it may seem, progress does not always look like excitement, but more like boring work done over an extended period.
We’ve discussed this in detail already. Whenever you catch yourself thinking that the grass is greener on the other side, pause and remind yourself that the grass is only green where you water it.
Make it a conscious decision to say ‘NO.’
Become intentional about rejecting anything that does not align with your path, no matter how tempting or shiny it may seem.
Implementing these two principles since late last year has changed my life. I’ve seen more progress in the last six months than I did in the preceding two years combined.
So, I implore you to pause, identify one area in your life where you've been avoiding the 'boring work,' and commit to taking a small step today. Whether it's dedicating 20 minutes to a task you've been putting off or saying 'NO' to things that don’t align with your vision, these small actions can ignite the compounding effect that transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.