Mastering The Monotony (Republish)

There are few things in life more miserable than the monotonous. I absolutely hate tasks that are boring and routine. One of the things I hate most about my job is that many of the tasks I do each day are the same routine and boring things. Perhaps the circumstances are different, but the tasks are generally the same. I find it incredibly difficult to find meaning and purpose in the monotonous, thus it is difficult to remain dedicated to do my best. But this is the wrong way to look at it. While I despise monotony, I understand that there is incredible value in the monotonous. Regardless, it is still something I struggle with almost daily. One of the methods I use to cope with the monotonous is to remember the words of Sabastian Enges, “Success isn’t sexy. The fruit of success is. But the actual path, the grind, isn’t sexy.” By this logic, the monotonous is success. The path is success. I talked about this last week in my article Defining Success. Despite my understanding that the process is valuable, I still struggle. However, I have found focusing on these three things helps to pull me out of the rut I get stuck in from time to time and remember that the monotony is what makes me stronger.

Have a Clear Goal

I bust work hard every single day, and I do it for one reason alone. To make my family’s life better by earning my retirement from the military. See I know and understand what that can do. It will springboard every other endeavor for the rest of my life by ensuring my family will never need health insurance and I will always have a safety net to fall back on if my plans go sideways. This is critically important to me. I have a clear vision for the future. I will have a net worth north of a million dollars within the next seven years. After I have achieved that, I will move on to my next goal of having 2 million dollars in my bank before I turn 50. I know that the monotony of my current situation and the day-to-day grind is what I need to do to get there. It will provide me the financial freedom to take risks that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to take. Your vision of the future probably looks completely different. But if you have a clear vision of where you want to be and a path to get there, it makes the daily struggle a little easier. All you have to do is remember what you are fighting for.

I recently undertook a goal to get back into shape after having surgery a few months ago and being out of commission for over a year. Believe me, the path is going to be a long one. I was finally able to run again for the first time a few weeks ago and this week I got back into the gym again for the first time. But it was a shock to see just how out of shape I am. It was incredibly disheartening to realize just how long it is going to take to get to where I want to be. But every single morning this week, I got up at 5:30 and went to the gym. I hate the gym. I think it’s boring and I’ve never liked it. In fact, after waking up, I immediately play motivational videos on YouTube to help provide me with the motivation I need to make sure I go to the gym. While I’m listening to these videos, I open my phone and look at a picture I took recently that I dislike. Then I flip to a photo of only a couple of years ago when I was in much better shape. I have a clear vision. Every single time I look at those pictures, it gives me a clear vision of where I am and where I need to go to make sure I get to the gym and get after it despite loathing the monotony. So I listen to my videos and I look at my pictures every single day because…

Everything Is Habit Forming

Everything you do creates habits. Every time you sleep in, each time you eat a donut or sit on the couch watching TV you are creating habits. Have you ever noticed that making a poor decision often leads to more poor decisions? This is because making poor decisions becomes habit forming. But discipline, getting up early and getting after it, working hard, and making good decisions is also habit-forming. The more you do them the more engrained they become in every fiber of your being. Forming disciplined habits gets me through the monotonous. I will not let myself quit just because something is boring. You must have control over your mind and form the habits necessary despite how you feel.

This is incredibly difficult. But we have to build a calloused mind that does not give an option to quit. The monotonous is what makes this happen. It is the boring stuff that makes champions. Everyone wants to be Michael Jordan, but no one wants to put in the work of doing the basics perfectly every single time. That is what made him the greatest basketball player of all time. He was brilliant in the basics. He mastered the monotonous. He did the routine better than anyone else on the planet. The monotonous is what made him great. He was willing to do the work no one else took the time to do. Everyone sees his success, but not the amount of time he spent on the boring aspects that made him truly great. Remembering this helps, but that doesn’t make it any easier. It is discipline that forces me to go to the gym every day, eat the right things, and make the decisions necessary to achieve my goals despite how I may feel. Feelings will not get me where I want to go, discipline will.

It Doesn’t Get Easier

There is a famous ultra-marathon runner, motivational speaker, and former Navy SEAL named David Goggins who is notorious for running hundreds of miles and brutal physical training. But he once talked about how sometimes he would wake up and stare at his shoes for 30 minutes before lacing them up and going for a run. Someone like this who has a mind of steel still struggles with the mundane task of getting up and putting in miles. The difference is that he has the discipline to lace his shoes and run every single day without fail. It helps me to remember that I’m not the only one that struggles, but I understand that things won’t get easier and that is okay. The monotonous is the stuff that people don’t want to do, including me. So by doing the things I don’t want to do, I am giving myself an advantage over everyone else. Monotony is the thing most people are too undisciplined to do. If I do the things I don’t want to do every day to the best of my ability, I can achieve my goals and often achieve them faster than others. Having the discipline to pay attention to all of the fine details and mastering the small things is what it means to master the monotonous.

I will probably continue to struggle with monotony. But I have a clear vision of where I want to be and what I want to achieve. Now, understanding that it will not get any easier, I simply need to have the discipline to do all of the small things and pay attention to the fine details to master the monotonous and use the monotony to achieve my goals.