Where your boredom reaches a critical level

Penn Jillette writes in his book:

“The big secret of magic is, we are willing to work harder to accomplish something stupid than you can imagine. We’ll practice things for years that you wouldn’t consider investing an hour in. I had to practice that a lot. A lot more than you can imagine. I had to practice a lot more than you think it’s worth. Our big secret is that it’s worth more to us to do our tricks than you can even imagine. Our deep secret is simply misplaced priorities.”

Penn’s philosophy makes me wonder if the tedium threshold is nature or nurture.

Because some people naturally possess a higher tolerance due to their inherent resilience. It’s intrinsic to their temperament. Investing far more time and effort than others might deem reasonable is second nature to them.

These individuals are called jerks. Good for them and their natural proclivity for tolerance.

Meanwhile, other people have to train for it, say, through mindfulness, meditation or other practices. They learn how to cognitively reframe their boredom as yet another opportunity for growth.

Now, this is more of an uphill battle versus someone who is predisposed to pushing through the tedium, but it nets the same outcome.

In my experience, most people are a combination of both nature and nature. And with enough experience and maturity, they combine both intrinsic qualities and teachable skills.

One recommendation I can offer, regardless of your level of tolerance, is to create a positive feedback loop that reinforces perseverance. Anytime you push through and stay with it, congratulate yourself. Anytime you move a lot of rock to get the nuggets of gold, document that moment in your victory log.

This activates your brain’s reward system. By shooting yourself up with some dopamine, you cement the memory of that sense of accomplishment. Which will come in handy next time you need to push through the tedium.

Two days or two months from now, you’ll confront a task and think to yourself, ugh, god, do I really want to spend the next hour on this bullshit?

Yes. Yes you do. Because now you know there’s a tangible reward on the other side of this monotonous task.

I encourage you to consider your own tedium threshold. When you’re doing a repetitive task, notice at what point your boredom reaches a critical level.

Whether you’re naturally tolerant to such moments, or need to work on that skill more actively, one thing’s for sure.

This quality is essential in many areas of life. From work projects to challenging relationships to creative hobbies, the resilience translates.

You’ll be glad you have it.

How are you creating a positive feedback loop that reinforces perseverance?