16,250 hours… ⏰
Let me hit you with a number that changed how I think about literally everything: 16,250 hours.
That’s how many hours I spent training as a gymnast. Of those, about 108 were spent in actual competitions. My entire Olympic experience? Sixteen hours total.
The balance beam is four inches wide and I fell off it approximately 8 million times before I stuck that Olympic routine.
So when people see the highlight reel — the gold medal, the podium, the national anthem — they’re seeing 0.098% of the work.
I wish I could give you some Olympic champion secret that makes consistency easy. That would be a lie. The truth? Most of those 16,250 hours were mind-numbingly boring.
The same skills, over and over, until my hands were calloused and my brain went numb.
But here’s what I learned watching hundreds of talented gymnasts come and go: The most naturally gifted weren’t always the ones who made it.
The Olympic team often ended up with the last person standing — the one who could handle showing up when it wasn’t exciting anymore. When her body screamed for a break. When the beam felt like a medieval torture device.
“Think of boredom as a filter that separates the committed from the curious. Anyone can start something when it’s shiny and new. Few can navigate the desert of sameness that lies between beginning and mastery.”
Now apply that to the rest of your life.
The highlight reel of a great marriage — the vacation photos, the anniversary posts, the wedding day — is the 0.098%. The other 99.9% is loading the dishwasher, negotiating bedtime, and finding someone’s missing shoe for the fourth time today.
That’s where actual love gets built. Not in the grand gestures but in the repetitions.
The same is true in business. Andrew and I started creating content years ago, and our earliest videos had the charisma of two people being held hostage by their own ambition. Our families were our only loyal viewers, and even they sometimes forgot to watch.
But our sports backgrounds taught us the one thing that matters: The plateau is exactly where most people give up — and exactly where you shouldn’t.
Whatever you’re building right now — a career, a family, a side hustle, a habit, a faith — the boring middle is not a sign that you’ve stalled.
It’s the system working as designed. Mastery and boredom are inseparable. The people who achieve extraordinary things aren’t the ones who never got bored. They’re the ones who showed up after the novelty wore off.
My best advice? Design your life so that showing up requires less willpower than backing out. Hire the trainer who texts you when you don’t show up. Put the book where the remote usually lives. Make the path of least resistance lead toward the person you’re becoming.
We built a 7-day micro-commitment challenge for people who want to practice showing up in the boring, beautiful middle. It’s free. Download below!
What’s the thing in your life right now that’s in the boring middle? The thing you’re tempted to quit? Hit reply and tell us! Sometimes naming it is enough.
— Shawn and Andrew
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