Do you ever find yourself bored with something you once enjoyed doing, something that at first excited you to do because of its newness or because it posed a challenge? Do you ever find yourself trying to escape that boredom by looking for something new and different to do?
When we start to gain a competence in an area and then that work starts to feel mechanical we can lose interest in it and go searching for something new to do. Or we might find ourselves complaining that we hate the work we do. In these cases it might be time to look for new work, but then again it might not. Perhaps it’s time to start looking at how you can move from being competent or even good at what you are doing and work on getting even better. Maybe it’s time for a tune-up.
When I launched my podcast I didn’t know what I was doing so everything I did to produce the episodes posed a real challenge. I found the process of learning and fixing my mistakes to be interesting. I still have a lot to learn about podcasting, but I’ve reached a level of competence with it. It could be tempting for me to look for challenge elsewhere in order to move out of the routine I’ve created for myself in this work. But instead I’m listening to my episodes with fresh ears and seeing where I could improve it, what things could I improve or change so I can get to the next level. In this process I create new challenges to spice up this work.
The first thing I am going to do is to work on eliminating the “ums” and “you knows” from my speech. This will help me in a couple of ways: first I will become a better public speaker overall, second I will reduce the amount of time needed to edit on the back end, and finally it takes my focus of what I’ve already mastered and creates a new challenge for me to learn and improve.
What I’m going for is to work on myself and increasing my knowledge in this area. I’m not necessarily going for perfection because I don’t want to set myself up for disappointment in unrealistic expectations. What I am doing is finding and working on the untapped potential in my current state of performance. Growth is life.
Are you in a job that has started to become routine and dull because you’ve become competent in it? I challenge you to look at a task you have or your job with fresh eyes and ask yourself in what ways could I get better at this job? In what ways can I become more efficient by removing the redundancies of routine and unsatisfying aspects of this work to bring a freshness to it.
I’m interested in now your thoughts on this idea of a tune up. Drop a comment below if you feel so inclined.
That is all for now. See you soon.
Patricia Brooks is a life experiences coach, speaker, and the author of Growing Bold: How to Overcome Fear, Build Confidence, and Love the Life you Live. She is the host of the Discovering Courage Podcast where each week she explores how ordinary people have managed to live extraordinary lives. Patricia is currently living in France, pursuing her dreams.
Photo Credit: Lidya Nada