When I was a kid, I wanted to be a star soccer player. The glitz, glamour, and excitement of the job enthralled me. I grew up watching soccer on TV and playing it regularly. When I was in early elementary school, I was probably above average for my age in my town. I played in our town league and for our town’s all-star traveling team throughout my childhood. I also played every once in a while during recess at school and with friends after school or on the weekend. For some reason, I thought that’d be enough to propel me forward. Then, I got into high school and realized how wrong I was. What happened? I took boring consistency for granted.
Success Starts With Boredom
Most people see the tail end of success. They see the lavish announcements, awards, fame, or money people make and might think to themselves, “Wow, they’re lucky,” or “I wish that were me.” It’s easy to want the end result without ever considering what it took to get there. That’s where I was as a kid with my soccer star dreams. I saw the goals they scored, the celebrations they led, and the titles they won. What I didn’t see was everything it took to get there. I didn’t see all their boring consistency! I didn’t see all the conditioning drills they did, the diets they stuck to, or the tedious repetitive work they did to get to all their success.
The Joyless, Boring Consistency
What stopped me from doing all the work necessary to accomplish my goals? The answer is pretty straightforward – boring consistency isn’t fun! You hear stories about star athletes doing the same passing drill hundreds of times after school, day after day, until the day they got it perfect. It didn’t matter if they didn’t have a partner, as they’d just practice by aiming for the same spot on the wall outside their home. They would complete that drill so much that they would reach a point where they wouldn’t have to think about what to do come game time. That’s very different from what I did! I went to every practice and game, but I fell short when it came to boring consistency. And this is how my peers got ahead!
Practicing Boring Consistency
As I got older, the gap in skill only kept growing between my peers and me, with me being the one getting further and further behind. How did that happen? What did they do differently? How do they practice boring consistency?
- They went above and beyond what was required. While I was giving it my all in practice and during games, they lived and breathed soccer every chance they got.
- They sweated the small stuff. They were constantly trying to perfect their craft, so they didn’t let any small mistake slip past them. Everything was worthy of their attention.
- They strove for excellence. They were constantly working on their craft because they felt they were never good enough. And nothing was ever good enough until they were consistently excellent!
- There was always something they could work on. Some of the guys I played with in high school were phenomenal, but it was never enough for them. They watched European matches and played on several teams to get exposed to different perspectives and identify areas for improvement.
- They sought help and feedback from others. Boring consistency only works if you are consistent around the right things. You can spend 5 hours practicing a drill, but if you’re doing it wrong, then it only makes you worse. The way to ensure you are doing things right is by asking others for their perspective.
Boring Consistency Only Works If You’re Passionate
Growing up, my peers lived, breathed, and ate soccer because they loved it. They loved the competition and loved getting better. I certainly enjoyed playing soccer, but I wasn’t anywhere close to where they were when it came to passion. Most people can only handle boring consistency when they are doing something they are passionate about. I just was not as passionate about soccer as they were. And that’s ok! (Though it didn’t seem like that to me at the time.) I thought I was doing as much work as they were because we were at all the same practices and games. But I was missing everything they were doing outside of those times. They wanted “It” enough to invest a significant amount of their own time getting incrementally better every day.
Measure Success Through Incremental Growth
One tough part about boring consistency is that it can be hard to visualize the progress you are making. It is much easier to notice how much better you were this year vs. last year, but a lot harder to identify how you are better today than you were yesterday and by how much. That is part of why it can seem so boring for people; they aren’t able to notice how much they have grown. If you are passionate and invested in something, incremental growth is easy to see, measure, and celebrate.
See The Whole Picture
Next time you see somebody celebrating an achievement on social media, don’t wish you were them or wish you were lucky. Think about what it probably took them to reach that level of success. How much of their lives did they dedicate to boring consistency before they reached the success you saw them achieve via social media? Remember, success is not always about grand gestures but often about small, consistent steps taken over time.
Time to Commit
- Can you identify an area in your life where you could apply the principle of ‘consistent effort’? What specific actions could you take to ensure this consistency?
- Reflect on a time when you underestimated the value of consistent effort. How did it impact your progress toward your goal, and what did you learn from that experience?
