Getting to true, lasting change isn’t sexy.
It’s usually the opposite. Monotonous, ordinary, and seemingly not worth mentioning. But not mentioning it would be a shame.
Because the work required to get you to the desired change you want—like having a healthy and fit body, learning a new skill set, or freedom from building your own business—are in the normal, day-to-day details. Tasks like getting the optimum amount of sleep you need in a night, building up a website one post at a time, eating a balanced and nutritious diet, spending one hour learning something new and drinking enough water every day.
It’s the necessary and unsexy part of change—what’s often considered the grunt work.
Inspiring right? It’s about as exciting your mother telling you to eat your vegetables every day. Continued execution is what makes the change lasting, but for many of us, it doesn’t exactly make us want to jump up, pump our fists and get going.
Lasting change is in the everyday execution; the habits built over months and years.
Getting to true, lasting change definitely isn’t as glamorous as quitting your job, selling your belongings and moving to another country. It’s a far stretch from traveling the world, or getting funding for a shiny startup. While these exciting changes do happen, they’re not sustainable.
Eventually, the funds runs low; the tide recedes from the shore. Eventually there needs to be a new normal, a different routine to be established or savings to be rebuilt or replenished. And likely, before the initial glamorous change even occurred, there was a whole bunch of upfront dedicated work that needed to happen.
I had to save up before I quit my job two and a half years ago to take a six-month sabbatical. The act of going on sabbatical was awe-inspiring and buzzworthy. People were jealous and excited for me.
But eventually the sabbatical came to an end, and I found myself exploring other opportunities. As of today, I’m back to working full-time as we continue building our future vision—one little bit at a time.
It’s true that the day-to-day isn’t too interesting. But the day-to-day should be celebrated and talked about more.
Because it’s the daily actions that lead to those sexy changes that we all want.
The sexy change we’re working towards now is when when my husband and I finally build things to where we can work on businesses we’ve built from around the world. It’s when we have the freedom to travel wherever and whenever we’d like while continuing to learn and grow. It’s when we have the ability to work with other talented individuals on the things we care about.
Frankly, things are pretty unsexy right now.
We’re right in the midst of the Build phase of REEBO, potentially the longest and most tedious phase; in other words, we’re experiencing the unsexy part of change. I’m working full-time while helping out my husband, occasionally writing on Uncoveries, and taking care of the newest member of our family—our adorable five month old maltipoo puppy. There may not be anything exciting to report (aside from the new puppy! 😊) for months or perhaps a couple years.
In the end, it’ll all be worth it. There’s definitely a correlation between the unsexy part of change eventually turning into amazing experiences at some unforeseeable point, and it’s not just happenstance.