everything interesting is 90% boring
08 Sep 2016in her interview on on being, elizabeth gilbert shared a theory that really resonated with me. here’s a paraphrase:
“i’m developing a new theory: everything interesting is 90% boring. marriage, raising kids, even doing your dream work… it’s all mostly boring. there are the moments when things are exciting and attention garnering and great. but those moments are few and far between. for the most part, it’s putting in all the unglamorous time and work that makes awesome moments possible.
this reality is a pitfall of people who follow their passions for career. they leave their boring, tedious day job only to realize with a shock that their passion work too is tedious and boring most of the time.”
this makes a shitton of sense to me.
many a friend and acquaintance has mocked me for going to bed so early and getting up early. i often respond with, “hey, boring people get shit done,” and have been doing so for years. i think this is true because boring people understand how to push through the slog to the success point. “boring people” understand that meaningful, important is not all glamour and accolades.
i was even talking to my friend, ross, the other day about my allergy to being everywhere all the time. people who are everywhere all the time can’t possibly have the time to put in the hard work to do anything really meaningful.
anyway, now for some quotes and anecdotes:
“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”
— Warren Buffett
ryder carroll, the creator of the now wildly popular bullet journal says he perfected the journal over 20 years before launching the concept officially three years ago. - wall street journal article (ht @rchanowski)
“it takes at least ten years to become an overnight success.”
- here’s a page of quotes about this idea
- here’s an releavnt inc article: Why Successful People Take 10 Years to ‘Succeed Overnight’
this concept is also related to a post i wrote the other day about how creativity might be a combination of inspiration and hard work.