Yesterday I was listening to a podcast and the interviewee said this quote, “Success is not exciting. It’s repeating the boring stuff over and over again.” Looking at my life these past four years, I realized that the interviewee was right. I did not use willpower to keep showing up and making changes to my behavior. As the interviewee also noted, “It is not willpower but the will to live that makes you a success.” Four years ago, my relationship with food and fitness was killing me. I had to make changes to live.
However, the interviewee made me realize that I can apply this rule of success to other areas of my life. In the past few months, I noticed that I had gotten lazy practicing my tai chi forms. I had allowed other things to take priority in my life. I had to be honest with myself and ask myself why I had joined tai chi a year and a half ago – for discipline and confidence. Taking tai chi class had improved my discipline and confidence, and I was not ready to let those hard fought wins go to the wayside. So I forced myself to do the boring thing and make time to practice everyday, even if it was just 15 minutes a day. I have seen improvement in my forms and I am remembering more things because I am doing the boring thing – practicing.
Now I want to apply this to singing. Instead of relying on my natural talent and waiting until the last minute to practice before I sing in public, I now know I need to make time every day to practice the song I want to sing. If I don’t do that, I shouldn’t perform. My reason for performing is to share my talent with others. No one wants a half-assed effort as a gift. You will feel like a fraud if you don’t live up to the hype. If you feel like a fraud, you will sing like a fraud. What you think about yourself will betray you in the end. So we all should do the boring things. In my case, I need to make time to practice every day to successfully accomplish my goals. Here’s to discipline and showing up as the best version of yourself in your life!
Until next time!
R.R. Peace, Author and Poet 