Man in the Arena with Craig Spear

Mastering the Mundane

• Craig Spear

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Every worthy pursuit demands the unique ability to master the mundane. It means showing up every day and diligently working on your craft. Whether your goal is to lose weight, get stronger, sleep better, or be a better dad, embracing the often boring aspects of the process is essential.

While the ‘Rocky montage’ moments of overcoming adversity and achieving glory make up just 1% of the journey, the remaining 99% consists of doing the small, monotonous tasks day in and day out. This episode dives into why mastering these daily routines is crucial for achieving your goals.

Reflecting on my personal journey, from my days on the football field to the trials of entrepreneurship, I reveal how the most rewarding moments often come from persistent, unglamorous work. 

Did you find this episode helpful insightful or motivating? If so, let's connect! You can find me on....

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to man in the Arena. This podcast is for men over 40 who want to master their health and weight loss goals once and for all, with innovative strategies, practical tools and insightful interviews. My goal is to help you overcome your limiting beliefs and achieve your optimal health. It's time to look good, feel good and do better. Hello, and welcome back to man in the Arena. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening. If this is your first time here, I really appreciate you tuning in and listening to this podcast and, of course, if you're a longtime listener, I really appreciate you as well. One of the things I really enjoy about doing this podcast is reaching all different types of people, no matter where you are in your health and weight loss journey, so thank you so much for showing up.

Speaker 1:

Now. Today's just going to be a really quick episode. Really, all I wanted to do today is provide you with some motivation, but also a unique perspective on what it takes to accomplish a goal. As you know, I talk a lot about mindset in my coaching and on this podcast, talk a lot about managing your mind and the importance of managing your brain and the thoughts that you have. You know, looking at your limiting beliefs and then changing them so that they become beliefs that serve you. When it comes to goal achievement or success, most people think that achieving a goal is like this rocky montage. You know the highlights of achievement the glory, overcoming some kind of adversity, some big challenge, and then the admiration of achieving that big goal. And what I want to offer to you is that's actually like 1% of the entire process.

Speaker 1:

Now, peak performance or weight loss, running a successful business, being a great parent or a great husband is all about mastering the mundane. It's about doing the little things, the boring things, over and over and over again, and I've said this on this podcast before, but I love the quote by Mike Tomlin that says it's the tedious repetition of routine action that makes us great. So I encourage you as you master the mundane, I encourage you to find joy and satisfaction in the process, in doing the little things every day, and let go of this belief that pursuit of excellence and success is full of excitement and rewards, because it's not and that's why I think most people give up in their pursuit of success is they expect it to be easier, they expect it to be more rewarding and more fun and more thrilling, but it simply is not. And here's a quote by a sociology professor named Daniel Shambliss which kind of highlights exactly what I'm talking about. And here's a guy who studies elite swimmers. He says look at any worthy pursuit and you'll find that performing at a high level is really a confluence of dozens of small skills or activities, each one learned and stumbled upon, which have been carefully drilled into habit, and then they're fitted together into a synthesized whole. There is nothing extraordinary or superhuman in any one of these actions, only the fact that they are done consistently and correctly and all together that produces excellence. So I love that quote.

Speaker 1:

Right when you reflect back through your life and you look at all the times you've been successful, maybe you've graduated from college, maybe it was getting married or running a marathon or building a business, whatever it is every time you were successful, I guarantee you the peak moments were few and far between, and what was much more prevalent were the daily contributions, the tedious repetition of showing up, of doing uncomfortable work. That's what led to your success. And so, no matter where you are right now in your own pursuit of your goals, whether it's weight loss or improving your cardiovascular fitness or getting stronger, improving your sleep. Just know that it's not going to be necessarily fun. It's going to be pretty boring, it's going to feel pretty tedious, but that's all part of the process, so embrace that. I think back to when I played football, right, and we played a grand total of 10 games in a season, right, when I was in university. In the pros you play a little bit more games, but 10 games in a season. In the pros, you play a little bit more games, but 10 games in a season. That means you play one game in a week and the other 42 weeks of the year you're spending preparation of those games. And even in the games that you play, how many of the plays were actually big, successful plays that were full of glory and success and excitement? Not that many.

Speaker 1:

Running a business, it's no different. So I've built three separate businesses and there's so many hours that go into the building of the business and the actual rewarding transaction of earning money or getting really positive feedback. That happens far less frequently than the mundane daily inputs that go into making it all work. So it's that simple, right, you got to really find what works for you in order to succeed, whether that's losing 50 pounds, running a marathon, drinking less alcohol every day, becoming a better father. Find those key actions, repeat them every day. You want to execute those on a daily basis, track your progress, adjust where necessary and then keep going mastering the mundane.

Speaker 1:

All right, guys, this is all about showing up, doing the uncomfortable work and surrendering the outcome. That's all I have for you today. I know you're going to take this information and apply it, and I know you're going to start to really master the boring, tedious, repetitious actions that will lead to your success. Thanks a lot for tuning in. Now is the time to take action and change your life. Head on over to thespearmethodcom and discover how I can help you get started on your path better health and weight loss. Thank you.