Be Boring

 PAWS FOR THOUGHT

Volume 1 / February Issue

Topic: Be Boring

by: AD - Cole Cooper

    It's not hard to grow bored with those things in life that are easily predictable. When we know exactly what we’re gonna get, we tend to take what we have for granted. We minimize its value, and we lose our sense of appreciation. We overlook its awesomeness. You may be surprised to learn that today, that’s exactly the kind of person I want you to become. I want to challenge and encourage you today to be boring. To be taken for granted. To have your value minimized, underappreciated, and overlooked. I want you to do what champions do, and become unassumingly and invariably awesome, each and every day.

    This level of consistency is one clear way the champion sets themselves apart from everyone else. It's one of their most important, yet often unnoticed and underrated qualities. Champions in any area of life are so predictable. They show up and, usually with little to no fanfare, bring the same winning mindset to their work, day in and day out. You can take their performance to the bank. I don’t know what's in front of you today, but I do know that whatever it is, you're capable of bringing that mindset, too. We could be talking about responsibilities at work or at home, in school or in sports. It could be work you're doing in the public eye or work you're doing privately. It doesn't matter. When the champion walks in the door, you know exactly who you’re going to get.

    You’re going to get someone who’s committed to giving an elite effort and who’s chosen a positive, productive attitude. You’re going to get someone who rises up to meet the challenges and adversity that inevitably come with chasing excellence in any area of life. You’re going to get someone who is humble and hungry, who treats people well, and who’s striving to get better where it matters most. Simply put, you’re going to get the champion's very best. Every. Single. Day.

    You wouldn’t think it’d be easy to take a performance like that for granted, but it happens all the time. When you don't constantly have to be managed or motivated, when you hold yourself to a higher standard in every area of your work, and when you consistently bring your best without feeling entitled to attention or recognition …you're actually easy to overlook. If you’re a leader, a coach, or a manager, today might be a good day to make sure those people in your organization - the ones who don't need your management or your motivation - get the recognition they deserve.

    Most people, of course, don’t fit into that category. Most people are much less predictable. Most people are hard to count on because you can never be quite sure who you’re gonna get when they walk through the door. Their effort is inconsistent – one day awesome, the next day awful. Their attitude is mercurial and erratic. They treat the people around them well one day but poorly the next. When those unexpected challenges inevitably arise, their response is a crapshoot. Warrior? Weakling? Who knows. These are the team members who require the motivating, the managing, and the maintenance. Since you never know what to expect, you never take their best for granted. You know you better appreciate it, because you can't be sure when you’ll see it again.

    Instead of forcing those around you to try and guess who it is you’re going to be each day, commit to becoming so consistently good that you're boring. Make your effort and your attitude so predictable that they start taking you for granted. Be so steady in your resilient response to challenge and adversity that they start expecting it, relying on it, and even minimizing its value. Be unassumingly and invariably awesome every single day, starting here today.