Success Can Be Boring…. But a Successful Life Shouldn’t Be

Hi, I'm Liz Moser, and I'm a Mayo Clinic Certified Wellness Coach. Today I'm going to talk about how routine and ultimately boredom is an inevitable price we pay for success.

However,  the good news is that boredom doesn’t need to overshadow our entire lives.

What do I mean:

Success with any goal,  whether it’s maintaining your nutritional goals, exercising,  or completing a weekly blog and video like I do, is ultimately about repetitive actions, hopefully, performed daily which then, eventually become habits.  And habits can sometimes be dull.  Not always, but they can be.

When the boredom or doldrums sneak in, it’s up to us to discern whether we need to tweak our routines while not ditching the baby out with the bathwater.  Or the opposite, do we need to human-up (my less sexist version of man-up) and continue to grind through it.

If we choose humaning-up and grinding through, then we can add activities in other areas of our lives to increase our overall fun and excitement and balance out the scale.

An example of this for me:

One of my main goals is a physically and mentally healthy body.  (You want that in a wellness coach, don’t you! Ha!) A foundational component of a healthy body and mind is sleep.  What could be more boring than sleep?

Part of sleep hygiene is a regular wake and sleep time.  I take that to heart, and I wake daily at 5 am.  Which means I need to be in bed with lights out by 9:30 pm.  I don't have small children, nor do I have an on-call job that would impede this lifestyle choice. 

However, many people I know have grown children and a regular work routine or are even retired, and they’ll still stay awake to finish a book, a movie, or for New Year's Eve. 

I choose 99% of the time to put my sleep routine and, subsequently, my health ahead of those other activities or events. 

This consistent routine leads me and others, at times,  to consider myself boring. Yet,  I could also turn the statement, “I am boring because I have a steady wake and sleep time” around and truthfully say:

 I’m a successful sleeper. 

Or I could say that I’m successfully warding off obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and depression, all of which have been linked to disruptive sleep patterns. 

Much of success is nothing more than routinized actions, and real-life means, at times, some things are humdrum because the future goal is more important than the current repetitive action, the boredom, or the slog! 

On the other hand, there are times I make tweaks within my chosen lifestyle. For instance, I’m a vegan who doesn’t eat sugar nor flour, and when I've felt bored in the past, I’ve tried new fruits or vegetables (goodbye celery, hello jicama!) or a new recipe.

Or if I’m bored with my exercise, I’ve purposely started a conversation with the person on the mat next to me or picked another class or purchased a new work out book and started to follow a new lifting routine. 

In both cases, I maintain the overall parameters of nutritional goals and my weekly movement goals, for instance,  while some specifics are tweaked. 

In general, if I’m looking to add overall fun and excitement to my life, I look at the list of activities that  I explored in my video & blog called  My Happiness Hack.  Many of the activities are rather cerebral, and yes would add to your overall life satisfaction; although, I wouldn't say counting your blessings, cultivating optimism, or developing strategies for coping would decrease my boredom or add excitement to my life.  (I could be wrong)

However,

Taking care of your body - Engaging in physical activity. Perhaps hiking, dancing, walking outside with a friend.

Or,

Practicing acts of kindness – Being of service, volunteering, or like my friend Barb, join a group that meets monthly and provides random acts of kindness.  So fun!  Who wants to join that group?! 

And,

Doing more activities that truly engage you - Being in the flow or in a flow state.  One of my clients, for instance, is going to make sure she brings drumming back into her life regularly, while I love to curl up with a book in my sunroom or do a puzzle at the dining room table. 

The flip side to this,

and something to watch out for is that many of us, have at times, turned to activities to relieve boredom that may indeed solve the problem temporarily; however,  instead of adding to our overall life satisfaction, they decrease it in the long run.  These are activities such as overeating, excessive tv watching, and too much time on social media, to name a few. 

In sum:

I’m Liz Moser, a Mayo Clinic Certified Wellness Coach. I invite you to consider that there is no way to accomplish your goals without daily, weekly, monthly routinized actions that, at times, can be tedious.  Please don’t succumb to the lure of short-term relief from boredom as opposed to the long-term joy of achieving your goals. 

Expect some boredom and embrace it!  It means you're on the road to success.

Thanks for listening to this video and if you have any questions about this video, or if you have any questions about health and wellness or wellness coaching with me, please contact me through  my website at  lizmosercoaching.com

Bye for now! Liz