Boredom as an indicator of progress and being on the right track.
Boredom II: Preying on the Ignorant
I
New fitness practitioners wonder why exercise is soooooo boring and when it will get fun. They are soooooo bored of doing the same boring movements over and over and decide to switch up. They have a blast at the expense of the progress they made and wonder why they're still in the same place as when they started. They give up, thinking exercise doesn't work and it's just not for them.
II
Programmers long for the allure towards code they experienced during their honeymoon phase as they slowly slip into a boring schedule filled with meetings and not-so-fun projects. The coding gurus on the screen promised fancy machine learning and a six-figure job at a FAANG in only a few short months, but all the programmer can see is basic web development and all they know is their cubicle and all they feel is angst at this being their role for the next 40 years before retirement. They give up thinking there's little room for progression and go back to their former, dead-end job before the bootcamp.
III
Language learners hit a wall around the A2 level and come to the realization a language can't be learnt in 30 days—it's going to take much, much longer. They stare down the abyss of grammar, nuances of pronunciation, and seemingly infinite vocabulary, thinking about how boring it will be to learn and practice all of that. Is it really worth it all anyway? After all, English is the lingua franca of the world. They give up in the face of years of practice and continue being Americ...monolingual.
IV
Investors question where the excitement of making money is and why all those nerds on the Bogleheads forum advocate for index funds. They withdraw all funds, gains included, and begin day trading, taking advice from other online forums that obviously know better than the Boglehead chumps and forming their own theories on why this company is going to blow up and that company is going to tank. They finally have something to talk about at the water cooler, even if money is being lost at an alarming rate. When the principal hits zero and all is lost, all trust in the stock market is lost. They give up, never putting another penny into the market and living paycheck-to-paycheck.
V
Overweight people find counting calories and measuring food to lose weight to be inconvenient and boring, nothing like the smiling people on the television made it seem like. After a few weeks of counting and measuring, the scale shows a slightly lower number than it had in the past few years. They begin to question the efficacy and accuracy of calories in vs. calories out, and after reading some pop health articles on some pop health websites, decide to forget about CICO and only eat based on feel and how much food there seems to be on the plate. "I've been counting for a few weeks. My calorie estimates are calibrated by now." The scale quickly jumps back up to the same weight. They give up, claiming their bodies just aren't made for losing weight and they're stuck that way forever.
These examples all have common themes.
First, the expectations on the experience and progress are unrealistic. Expecting an exciting experience throughout the entirety, or even majority, of a process that requires significant effort is naive and borderline asinine. Motivation ebbs and flows on a daily, monthly, even yearly basis, providing energetic spurts in some periods and depressive valleys in others. What's important in starting an effortful process is not learning how to work off of those spurts—everyone can do that—but rather recognizing, understanding, and ultimately accepting that there will be periods of boredom, of listlessness, of rationalizing why it isn't worth it, of wanting to quit followed by the opposite feelings of excitements, of energy, of questioning why this wasn't started sooner, of getting angry that quitting ever came to mind and learning to work through the down times. Once this is accepted and firmly ingrained in the skull, the depressive valleys can be dealt with more easily. They are now expected and known to go away after some time. How long is unknown, but the finiteness is what matters. In the meantime, progress will continue to be had.
One of my favorite quotes is from Mark Twight:
It doesn't have to be fun to be fun
In even more basic terms, an experience doesn't have to be exciting or dangerous (read: fun) in order to enjoy it. I find enjoyment in hard training in the early morning, but most people I know, athletes included, question my sanity when hearing that. I find enjoyment in watching my boring ol' index funds slowly but surely gain in value over the course of months and years. There is something in these processes that makes them inherently fun. Knowing that I am making progress towards my goals is the most plausible explanation for why I find satisfaction in these "boring" practices.
Expectation of progress must also be adjusted to realistic and personal levels, all dependent on the process, amount of effort supplied, and environmental factors. Some processes, like learning Japanese as a native English speaker, take significantly longer than others, like losing a few pounds of extra weight. Knowing typical timelines for the specific process can help gauge progress more objectively than arbitrarily expecting to be at point 5/10 four months in when most people are only at point 2/10.
Effort supplied can expedite or impede (or even ruin) progress to the point of exponential growth (e.g., fitness) or logarithmic growth (e.g., language learning and fitness (yes, again)). Daily hard efforts in training will stunt progress significantly, while hard efforts in weight loss (e.g., high volume of exercise and significant caloric deficit) will cause faster weight loss. Learning to regulate effort based on outcomes is a valuable, uncommon skill. Most people tend to have only a few effort settings: off, easy but unfocused, easy and focused, hard but unfocused, hard and focused. But effort isn't discrete, it's analog. Effort needs to be adjusted in real-time based on outcomes. Some days need to be easier, some harder, some off. It takes time to understand personal responses, requiring this skill should be trained and reviewed often. Note progress and recovery after a hard week of training versus an easy week; note recall capability after a month of focused Japanese-learning versus a month of haphazard studies.
The reviews will likely show that progress is not necessarily linear, nor does it correlate directly with effort. Progress will stagnate on some days and thrive on others. Ability may regress slightly or jump immensely, both without apparent cause. Attempt to identify patterns in this via review.
Second, patience is lacking. Get-rich-quick schemes are prevalent nowadays, where "rich" is referencing progress in some domain and "quick" is referencing either time, effort, or both. Quadruple your initial investment in just 3 days! Learn how to code artificial intelligence like a pro in 30 days! Get the fit body you've always wanted in 30 days! These dishonest claims are plastered over advertisements, creating much more false hope than the honest version of "quadruple your initial investment in just four years!" or "get the fit body you've always wanted in two years with uncomfortable exercise, small portions, and going to bed early!" will. And yet these schemes persist because people continue to buy in to the lies.
Patience is a virtue. It takes practice to not get antsy when it feels like time is stretching. It takes practice not to push the pace when it feels like progress is stagnating. Like adjusting effort based on outcome, patience takes regular practice to develop and become comfortable with, ultimately paying off due to reserved approaches to the process.
Third, progress was made in the process, but was either not noticed or not appreciated due to lack of excitement. Note that all examples made some sort of progress: fitness person got stronger/faster, programmer got a programming job, language learner made it to A2, investor made money, overweight person lost weight. Some noticed it (overweight person), while others didn't appreciate it (investor). And yet, despite lack of excitement, the process worked! This brings another key quote to the playing field:
If it ain't broke, don't fix it
Before switching to something different, determine how much progress was made on the current program and if so, if progress is continuing to be made. If the former question is greater than 0 and the latter a "yes", then there is absolutely no need to switch. Keep on keeping on. If the answer is greater than 0 and a "no", then first the program and adherence to it should be assessed for any flaws or oversights. If issues are found, adjust accordingly. If there are no issues, discontinue the program and switch to something different.
Boredom implies monotony, which implies consistency, which produces results (along with other required factors, of course). Consistency is quite often the key to progress in most realms. Training? Check, strength and conditioning progress will be lost if there's no training being performed. (I'm leaving programming out of this paragraph, as the principles are not necessarily learned in the same way a foreign language's vocabulary is.) Language learning? Check, rules and vocabulary begin to be forgotten. Investing? Check, not putting money in regularly leads to low gains or purchasing investments at higher values. Weight loss? Check, a 500 calorie deficit one day doesn't make up for a 600 calorie surplus the next—the caloric deficit needs to be maintained on a consistent basis, as an entire week's worth of effort can be destroyed in one meal.
The misconception that in order for something to be effective it must be exciting—or at least not boring—is endemic in society. Companies are aggressive in claiming how their product is not boring, which makes obvious sense from a business standpoint, but not from a progress standpoint. Next time either boredom or excitement is felt, consider the role it's playing and the benefit it's providing. From there adjustments can be made.
Boredom educates. Boredom moderates. Boredom progresses.