IS BOREDOM KEY TO CONSISTENCY?

It’s common to think that boredom means nothing interesting is happening. The deeper definition comes from the emotional discomfort of unstimulated attention. It happens when your mind is looking for novelty but the environment is showing you repetition and you find no immediate reward.

In other words, boredom is not the lack of fun. It’s just a signal from your brain that whatever is happening around you is not bringing quick dopamine. That is why boredom shows up mostly in activities that are important, repetitive or slow to show results. You end up needing a long period of time to actually find dopamine from within, and the emotion you feel in that process is boredom.

It’s the bridge between what you want to feel and what discipline requires you to do.

Consistency, on the other hand, is usually described as doing something regularly. However, that definition is incomplete. Consistency is the ability to repeat a behavior regardless of changing emotions or circumstances. Not when you are motivated, not when it’s exciting, but when you are uninterested, distracted or bored.

Consistency is not an emotional state, it’s a behavior that continues an action after the excitement has disappeared.

With those definitions in hand, the link is found in tolerance.

If you cannot handle boredom, you will find it extremely hard to be consistent. If you can keep up with boredom, consistency becomes natural.

After a year of showing up, thinking and developing ideas, I always thought that my need to keep pushing was tied to the excitement this was giving me. New subscribers, brand deals and a bunch of ideas that felt incredibly right. The feeling remains, but the reality has changed a bit. The reward is not as fast as it used to be, and I assume the dopamine has also lowered. Basically, I’m having trouble keeping the consistency and ignoring the boredom of the project.

The direction might change, and the point of all of this might change as well. But the only way to keep feeding my appetite for growing is to keep pushing, especially when it feels hard. That being said, let’s see what comes ahead.