During my MBA at Wharton, people told me that consulting is really exciting – you get to solve the hardest business problems!
So I joined McKinsey for my summer internship. And I was looking forward to all the excitement of problem-solving.
But on my summer project, almost all my time was spent making PowerPoint decks. Where was that excitement people talked about?
I assumed that it must be my specific project that might be dull – other projects would definitely be more exciting. But even when I joined full-time, project after project, I failed to find the excitement I was looking for. Most of my time was spent doing mundane tasks.
Today, as an entrepreneur, I get to build a business from scratch – what could be more exciting? Yet, for an outsider, most of the things I do would look quite boring.
I now realized that what we call ‘exciting’ is only a small part of life – most of life is just doing what needs to be done – many would call it boring. But I find them meaningful because I care about the end outcome.
Today, our digital distractions have trained our minds to constantly seek excitement and novelty. So much so that we find it hard to stick to anything that feels boring. But don’t let it happen – that is dangerous.
If you can’t do anything boring, you can’t do anything meaningful. Don’t allow your social media feed to delude you – life is not a party.
Get used to the boring stuff. Life is not about non-stop excitement.
– Rajan