Boredom – Your Greatest Threat to Results
James Clear, author of Atomic Habits has said: “The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom.”
Shane Parrish, creator of Farnam Street has redefined this: "The greatest threat to results are boredom and impatience."The only way to become really good at something is to keep on keeping on doing the boring old basic stuff.
How Boredom Occurs
We all know what we should be doing, but the trouble with that is that sooner of later we get bored.
The enjoyment fades, the excitement and novelty wears thin, and we're left with the hard grind.
The same old same old - just the boring old basics.
We live in a world that glorifies the results and not the process.
In a world dominated by social media, we glorify the results and not the process. We see the move that knocked someone out, or scored a home run, but not the years of effort that went into perfecting it.
We see the results, not the hard work.
But it’s hard to be above average if you can’t find a way to do the same thing over and over again.
As Bruce Lee allegedly said: “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
Our boredom gets fueled by impatience and frustration.
We seek novelty.
The grass over there really does seem greener.
Before we know it, we let our good habits slip and then we start rationalising our behaviour.
Motivation is fleeting. It was easy at the beginning because we’re fired up and full ready to conquer the world.
But becoming really good at something - acquiring mastery - requires practice - endless practice - and that involves repetition and that eventually becomes boring.
So how do we find a find a way of showing up despite the boredom?
James Clear says that: "The only way to become excellent is to be endlessly fascinated by doing the same thing over and over. You have to fall in love with boredom."
I agree with the first part of Clear's statement but I am not sure about the falling in love with boredom. That's a cute turn of phrase but what does that mean in practise?
How To Deal With Boredom
Boredom is not rational it is an emotional response.
There is a part of you that is committed to your goals and that understands and accepts the effort that is required for you to achieve mastery - or at least excellence - as the means to achieving those goals.
But there is another part of you that has a short attention span, that demands instant gratification, and it wants it now.
In my experience you can not fight boredom, and with all due respect to James Clear - and I have much respect for him - you can not love boredom.
So what to do? How do you deal with boredom?
Short answer - sit with it.
Longer answer, take a mindful approach to the feelings associated with boredom. Just sit quietly for a moment, take a deep breath and observe the feelings and emotions and thoughts that are associated with your boredom, and that arise.
When I do this I observe some or all of the following:
- Frustration
- Impatience
- Irritation
- Resistance
- Anger
- Arrogance
Ok now we know what we're dealing with, so what to do?
The next step is to apply the transformative power of acceptance.
This is a simple yet extremely powerful mindfulness practise that will release you from the grip of these thoughts and emotional responses to doing what you need to do.
Here is how to practise acceptance.
Follow these brief and simple steps and your boredom and associated feelings will disappear, you will feel calm, centred and ready to do what you need to do.
If you feel any kind of resistance to doing this - just do it anyway and see what happens. It just could be one of most productive 5 minutes you have spent for a while!
Next Article: The Luck Factor - 4 Principles
Return from "Boredom" to: Walking The Talk
Contact me
LATEST ARTICLES
Situational Communication - Different Strokes For Different Folks
Situational communication is about taking account of 3 often ignored factors about the other person. You are a situational communicator when you recognise that effective communication is not an event…How To Influence Without Authority - 6 Key Tips
The secret to how to influence without authority is that you get what you really want by giving other people what they really want. We live in an interconnected world and knowing how to influence with…Change Questions To Change Your Outcomes
Asking The Right Questions Is Critical For A Successful Change. Every time we initiate a significant change - whether in our personal life or in an organisation - we will most likely over-estimate our…Group Culture - The Invisible Software That Rules Your Life
Group culture is: "How we do things round here". We like to see ourselves as free agents making our own choices and living authentically but the reality is that The Matrix has many layers and we are u…Why Getting From A to B Is Not Aways A Straight Line
In circumstances of significant change, the progress from A to B will not be in a straight line. We run our lives largely on auto-pilot. In most circumstances your experience of getting from A to B is…The Art Of Persuasion Planning For Success - Here's How To Do It!
To be successful in the art of persuasion you must ensure that certain things happen. To be successful in the art of persuasion you must establish a framework of what has to happen to get you to that…The Art Of Persuasion Advanced Communication Skills - Gaining Buyin
Create The Environment Where They Want To Buyin to Your Proposal In order to build the win-win you have to uncover what it is that the other person really wants or needs, and to do that you have to as…The Art Of Persuasion The One Fundamental Principle - Create A Win-Win
The art of persuasion is based on the simple idea that you get what you want by enabling the other party to get what they want. Being a nice friendly person with good inter-personal skills may be a go…Communication Persuasion And Change - Key Skills To Survive & Succeed
It's not the strongest that survive, nor the most intelligent, but those who are most responsive to change, the most persuasive, and the best communicators. We are living in an age of unprecedented ch…The Eisenhower Box - What Is Important Is Seldom Urgent
What Is Important Is Seldom Urgent And What Is Urgent Is Seldom Important. The Eisenhower Box is a time management and decision-making model devised by President Dwight Eisenhower to help him prioriti…Zen Enlightenment [Satori] - The Stink Of Zen
Lost In Our Delusions About Enlightenment. There is something in human nature - a desire to glamorise, sanctify, objectify and idolise – that elevates people who have offered deep insights to the huma…5 Zen Mindsets For Mastery - In Any Area Of Your Life
The Wisdom Of A Person Who Masters In Any Art Is Reflected In Their Every Attitude. The state and quality of your mind has a very large bearing on the quality of your performance in any area of life t…Dealing With The Toxicity Of Online Dating - 6 Key Tips From A Clinical Psychologist
Toxicity Is The Price Tag Of Accessibility. In the early days of online dating, users were vetted and had to go through a registration process and agree to comply with a code of conduct designed to en…Why Understanding Ergodicity Is Critical To Your Long Term Survival
How Not To Be Fooled By Randomness. Ergodicity is an ugly word from the world of mathematics. It is an umbrella term for two sets of conditions of probability and outcome. These two conditions form th…Dealing With Imposter Syndrome - Ego Is The Enemy
How You Frame A Situation Has A Profound Impact On How You Respond To It Emotionally. Imposter syndrome is a psycho-emotional experience of a fear of being found out as incompetent despite ongoing evi…The Challenges Of The Road Less Traveled
Issues You'll Face When Playing The Long Game. The challenges of the road less traveled is loosely based around the phrase popularised by M.Scott Peck with his book "The Road Less Traveled". This arti…How To Benefit From the Unseen Margins - 5 Key Tips For Success
These Unseen Margins Can Have A Very Dramatic Impact On Your Life. To understand how to benefit from the unseen margins we need to start by understanding what they are and where we find them. In this…The Art Of Thinking Clearly - How To Do More Than Just Survive And Reproduce
3 Key Tips The art of thinking clearly starts with the sobering realisation that our brains are designed to achieve two things: Survival and Reproduction! 98% of our thinking is unconscious, automatic…Algorithms to Live By - 5 Useful Rules Of Thumb
5 Useful Heuristics From Algorithms To Live By The thesis of the book "Algorithms to Live By" is that algorithms developed for computers can be used by people in everyday life in a wide range of situa…Finding Signal In The Noise - How To Avoid The Noise Bottleneck
The Art Of Being Wise Is The Art Of Knowing What To Overlook. We are blessed and cursed to live in the digital age. We have access to more information than we can possibly handle yet we struggle to fi…The Checklist Manifesto - Your Personal Safety Net
A Checklist Is A Safety Net That Encourages Better Results And Prevents Avoidable Mistakes. The volume and complexity of what we know has exceeded our individual ability to deliver its benefits correc…How Not To Be Stupid - 4 Key Tips
How To Avoid The 7 Causes Of Everyday Stupidity. We are all capable of everyday stupidity as we undertake routine tasks in our business and working lives and also in our personal lives. This is not ab…Beginners Mind And The Voice Of Experience
Only The Experts Survived Evolution.
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few." These are the famous words of Shunryu Suzuki in "Zen Mind, Beginner's Min…The Art Of Being Alone Is A Skill
Let's Make Today A Good Day. You may not have chosen the condition of being alone, and it may have been imposed upon you by circumstances beyond your control, but your response to the situation is wit…Intuition & Anxiety - Are There Angels Or Devils Calling Here?
How To Tell The Difference Between Intuition and Anxiety. How do you know whether the voice of your intuition is real or just the product of your inner anxiety? We all struggle with these inner voices…Like A Prayer - Life Is A Mystery
It Isn't The Process Of Prayer That’s The Problem, It’s The Way It’s Framed. Regardless of what we feel about Madonna or her song the topic of prayer often arouses strong reactions. Usually, it is som…Fear Of Missing Out - "I'll Have What She's Having!"
We Follow The Herd - We Mimic Other People's Choices. Fear of missing out - or FOMO as it is popularly referred to - is the feeling that everyone else in your peer group is having much more fun than y…Free - Self Improvement Resources
Exercising Balance and Discernment. I have just updated these self improvement resources with a number of additional sources of material that are practical and can help you change your life. Check it…Your Higher Self - Your Hardwired Portal To The Universe
This Is The You That Is Beyond Your Thinking Mind. This is the big you, the transcendent you, the you that is often referred to as your higher consciousness or higher self. This is the you that acts a…The Power Of Gratitude - It's Good For You!
Gratitude And Attitude Are Not Challenges, They Are Choices. The power of gratitude quite simply is that it is good for you! Many of us were raised by parents who instilled in us the social niceties o…