The path of tedium...
How much do you love the boring parts of what you do?
Last week, I wrote about coils of safety rope*. It’s hard to imagine a more boring topic. And that was the point.
It was a slow week training-wise, and it made sense to talk about some of the more tedious but necessary drills I do to keep my skills sharp when I can’t get on the water.
That post got a much better response than I anticipated. Readers reached out with anecdotes about the role of attention to detail in their own lives and work.
One comment related the practice of rope management to Robert Greene’s thoughts on tedium as a key ingredient of mastery. As Greene puts it,
"It’s not about passion, it’s about putting up with the tedium and boredom to achieve something great.”
Later, I saw an old LinkedIn post by Billy Oppenheimer on the same topic. And it came up again in a conversation I had with Sophia Le of The Write-Life Balance.
It seems like talking about boredom is anything but boring. So, let’s get into it.
Boredom is your compass.
Do I love sea kayaking? Yes.
Am I, to use the word that makes Robert Greene cringe, passionate about sea kayaking? I am.
Is sea kayaking occasionally super boring and tedious?
Ask me halfway through an open crossing with the far shore not getting any closer or when all I want to do is change into dry clothes, but I have to wash the salt off every piece of gear and hang it all up to dry first…
Fantasizing about a big, ambitious trip is fun. Studying charts and crawling satellite images of the coast on Google Maps for hours to find safe landing spots and work out their bearing and distance from my waypoints so I can get there with a paper map and compass is not fun at all.
Tedium is not separate from love and passion. It’s the price of passion. It’s the tax I pay to do the thing I love at the level I want to do it.
I don’t have to learn about tidal vectors and the “rule of twelfths” to go for a casual Sunday paddle. But I do if I want to venture beyond the reach of a safe landing.
I don’t have to study meteorology to go on a three-day trip down the coast. But I do if I want to have confidence in changeable conditions and not be afraid of every dark cloud on the horizon.
I don’t have to memorize hard-to-pronounce Irish place names to paddle past them. But I do if I want to respect the island and the people who call it home.
If you want to do something like this, find the thing you love so much you’re willing to put up with the most tedious aspects of it. Let boredom be your compass.
*Speaking of attention to detail… Another reader asked a great question via email. He pointed out that “ropes” are called “lines” in a nautical context. And he’s right. A sea kayak has “deck lines.” And when used for towing, the rope in your throw bag is a “towline.”
When it comes to throw bags, I’ve heard these terms used interchangeably, and as far as I can tell, “rope” tends to refer to the object while “line” describes its function. For example, I’ve been working on my “rope” management to make sure I can get a “line” to a person in the water.
Thanks for reading,
-Charlie
Kokatat is the official gear sponsor of The Lap.
The lap will be fueled by Resilient Nutrition’s Long Range Fuel and bars.
Expedition coffee by 3fe.
CH Marine will be providing a VHF radio and other safety equipment.
Tent and cooking gas provided by Paddle & Pitch. Trolley by KCS.
REAL Field Meals at a discount from Adventure.ie.
Thank you, that helps me understand. I am about to finally publish my next short story, here (final draft). I love to write, working over the same text, again and again can be tedious, though.