This Is the Biggest Threat to Your Success
Feb 21, 2023
The biggest threat to your success is getting tired of doing things over and over again. Overcoming boredom means reconnecting with your why, and not being clear with your purpose could spell the end for you. Bring back the reason for your every task and habit to live a more meaningful life.
Join Yanet Borrego as she shares how you can overcome this mindset of boredom and escape a daily routine of repetition. Start bringing purpose back to your life today!
FREE Resources:
Need Clarity?
Schedule a FREE 30 mins clarity call with me by following this link: https://calendly.com/yanetbcoaching/clarity-call
3 Simple Questions to boost your clarity and make authentic decisions that lead to fulfilling outcomes. You also have a journaling space for each question to capture your insights.
Start your day without direction? Start your morning on purpose with this easy-to-implement 5 mins routine.
Let's Connect!
---
Watch the episode here
Listen to the podcast here
This Is the Biggest Threat to Your Success
In this episode, we are going to talk about the biggest threat to success. It is not failure. It is something else. Let me tell you a story. Back in 2021, I took three weeks of intensive training to become a trainer of neurolinguistic programming, which is the technique I use in my one-on-one coaching practice and digital course everywhere. These techniques have been transformational. I wanted to get certified so I can also teach other techniques and certify others if I want. It was also about public speaking. The training, big picture, was about becoming a trainer of NLP and a speaker of influence.
I've done a lot of speaker training before, including Toastmasters and the John Maxwell team. This training was the best one. It was three weeks of being from 10:00 AM to almost 8:00 PM every single day. It was intense. It was nerve-wracking because there were many times that you needed to present with a few minutes or hours of preparation. It was nonstop. It was pretty exciting at the moment. It felt more like survival mode but when you hit that last day, we celebrated. It was exciting overall.
I never forget something that our teacher said about becoming a good speaker and trainer. He said, “To become a great speaker and trainer, you have to become comfortable with repetition because you are going to be repeating yourself over and over in terms of the concepts but also in terms of the stories you tell. Some stories in your life are very transformational that you want to make sure you bring those stories to your training, one-on-one coaching or everything else that you're participating in.”
When he said that, it made total sense to me because I've taken many training trainers with this company, Empowerment, Inc. and this teacher, Dr. Matt James. I heard him say the same stories over and over but as a listener, every time he says those stories, I'm intrigued. I feel I learned something new because, at that moment, I'm going through something different in my life. Same story but with a different meaning.
As a speaker, I've always wondered, “Doesn't he maybe get bored of saying the same stories or repeating himself?” When he said that, I immediately comprehended that he was adopting the mindset of, “I'm here for a higher purpose. I'm here to teach my students through my life stories. I have a couple of impactful life stories. I keep using them right as a vessel to illustrate a concept.”
As a public speaker, you should use your life stories as a vessel to illustrate an impactful concept.
He said, “Repetition is important for everyone else who was in that training to get comfortable with repeating yourself because if you choose this profession of speaking and training or even coaching because in coaching we teach concepts, you are going to repeat yourself over and over.” Getting comfortable with that is super important.
I was finishing reading Atomic Habits. This was back in 2021 when I heard that, which made total sense. I was finishing listening to the book and he said something that made me go to that moment. It resonated so much with me. He said, “The biggest threat to success is not failure. The biggest threat to success is boredom.” To me, that was like a moment when my brain exploded in an amazingly positive way.
He is not referring to this boredom of, “I have to do something at work but I'm bored. I'm going to watch tv.” It is about the boredom of showing up every single day and doing those positive habits every single day that you know will give you a huge return on investment because those habits have to do with your health, productivity, physical, mental and emotional. How many times have you stopped a habit because it feels very repetitive like you're doing the same thing over and over?
I'm raising my hand with you. I've been there. It's this repetition that my teacher was talking about back in 2021 and that James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, brought up in the last chapter. This repetition is what causes us boredom many times. The repetition of doing the same thing over and over, showing up in the gym and doing a 30-minute workout, showing back up the next day and doing a 30 minutes workout. When you are still learning a habit, it requires some effort until you repeated it so many times that it becomes unconscious and you don't even think about it. It is part of your lifestyle.
Overcoming that mindset of, “I'm bored of eating healthy. I'm bored of showing up in the gym. I need something different.” The biggest threat in this area of boredom is our innate desire to want something different or something else. Sometimes we don't spend enough time repeating the basics to achieve great results. You can see this everywhere. We can see this in physical health by going to the gym.
People sometimes get bored of even going to the gym and repeating the same thing over and over. Sometimes it's because they don't see results right away. I've been going to a gym ten times and I haven't been seeing results. Therefore, I stop because this is not working. It's not that it's not working. It is because we haven't waited long enough to get that return. It's happening at the most molecular level. Progress is always happening as long as you continue showing up every single day.
Progress is always happening as long as you continue showing up every single day.
One day when you least expect it, you are going to have a breakthrough because that's how it works. I give the example to some of my coaching clients about a piñata. I probably did it when I was living in Mexico at twelve years old. I don't think I have hit a piñata after that. When you hit a piñata, you can visualize it or YouTube it if you have never seen one being hit.
You have a bat and you are hitting that piñata. In the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th hit, nothing happens so you're like, “What's going on? Where is the candy? This is not happening.” Maybe in the 9th or 10th hit the piñata breaks completely and the candy comes out. It wasn't the 9th and 10th hit that make the difference solely. It was all of the times you hit that piñata before. The same thing happens with our physical health.
We’re meditating for our mental and emotional health. It is not that after the first 10 or 20 times we need to stop because we don't see a massive improvement. It is that we need those repetitions for a one-day breakthrough, that transformation that we are seeking. Not only that. Even if you get to a breakthrough after 1, 2 or 3 months, it's important to recognize that this is a long-term process. This is a lifestyle, the one you are adopting.
Something that has helped me immensely to overcome this sense of, “I am bored,” is connecting back to my why. “Why am I doing this? Why am I showing up in the gym 4 or 5 times a week?” The highest intention is to be healthy and feel energized. When you connect back to that intention, then the repetition has a sense and purpose. That's what we are looking for at the end of the day. I have a past episode on overcoming the shiny object syndrome because this is very much related to this boredom that we feel at times.
I remember having amazing coaching clients because all of my coaching clients are amazing. She has seen significant improvement. She was meditating 80% consistently throughout the week. After two months, she was like, “I know how to meditate and focus on my breathing. I'm not there yet where I want to go but I'm ready for the next technique.” I told her, “Do you think you have mastered the basics? Do you think the basics are embedded unconsciously within you because you have learned them?” She told me, “No, I'm not there yet.”
I coach her on getting back to the basics, mastering them, being comfortable with repetition and being able to show up consistently in a similar way every single time instead of wanting to have another technique when you haven’t mastered this first one. Breathing in silence is the foundation of any meditation.
Sometimes we want the next thing, the next big technique, training or shiny object. The reminder to break through any transformation is to master the basics and be comfortable enough with repeating the same thing over and over. When you feel you are there for a considerable amount of time, I recommend at least three months. Honestly, three months is nothing. I would say 6 months to 1 year of repeating the same technique, then you have graduated yourself to go to the next one.
To break through any transformation is to master the basics and get comfortable repeating the same thing over and over.
My uncle was such a big role model for me. He gave me this book. I know Osho can be controversial per Netflix but he loves Osho as a spiritual teacher. I've read a couple of his books and I love him. What he says were genius, amazing and brilliant. He gave me this book that has 101 meditation techniques. This was back probably around 2013.
He told me, “The most important thing is for you to understand what resonates with you. What resonates with the person next to you or another person is what resonates with you in terms of your meditation practice. For that, you need to practice at least one meditation technique for three months to see if it works or not. If you do it for three months consistently and you haven't gotten the results you want, then you can transition to the other one.”
“I don't recommend you practicing ten days on meditation technique and jumping to the other one because if you are jumping from place to place, you will not have the opportunity to get in-depth into practice and in this case, to meditation but the same applies to everything else in-depth into your workout routine, a friendship at times, a relationship or whatever this is for you.”
I'm sure as you're reading, you're thinking of different scenarios where this might apply. The important part is to be comfortable with that repetition and go in depth. For example, in my one-on-one coaching clients, I work with them six months every week because transformation requires action and showing up consistently. For this reason, every single habit follows the same structure and framework. After listening to Atomic Habits, I have a deeper perspective of what my teacher was saying back in 2021. The biggest threat to success is not failure. It is boredom.
I hope this episode was super helpful for you. I felt identified with this concept of boredom and repetition. Every week, I am like, “I need to do an episode about this topic.” It wasn't until now that I did it and got the chance. I hope this is super beneficial. If you found this helpful, please share it with a friend or a family member that may benefit from these concepts and also this world of empowerment. Thank you much for reading. I appreciate you deeply. Lots of love. I love you all. I'll see you next episode. Bye-bye.
Important Links
- Atomic Habits
- Overcoming The Shiny Object Syndrome – Past Episode
- https://Calendly.com/YanetBCoaching/Clarity-Call
- https://www.YBCoaching.com/wellness5minsroutine
- https://www.Facebook.com/YanetBCoaching
- https://www.Instagram.com/YanetBCoaching
- https://www.LinkedIn.com/company/Yanet-Borrego-Coaching
- https://www.YouTube.com/channel/UCqxL829o0Vk-QdY12F-GgMw - With Clarity & Purpose
Stay connected with news and updates!
Join our mailing list to get resources, motivation, and upcoming events delivered to your inbox.
Don't worry, your information will not be shared.
We hate SPAM. We will never sell your information, for any reason.
