Enjoy The Mundanity of Life
"I have always tried to live by the 'awe principle." That is: Can I find awe, wonder and enchantment in the most mundane things conceivable." Craig Hatkoff
It is Monday morning. My alarm goes off at 4:40 a.m. I hit snooze a time or two and get out of bed around 5 a.m. I get dressed and wander to the kitchen. I let the dogs out while my Nespresso Vertuo, one of the greatest inventions of the 21st century, whirls away to make my cup of coffee. I straighten up the kitchen, let the dogs in and go to my office to start my morning ritual and prepare for the rest of the week...
This is my Monday. It is like almost every other Monday I have experienced for the last however many years of my life. There are no fireworks as I get out bed. There is no "vision" of the greatness of life or the "amazing" things I will do today and this week.
Nope.
It is a mundane Monday. And that is okay and wonderful. Because I choose to embrace the mundane. In America, we fear the mundane, we fear the ordinary, we hate the routine. We bought into the lie of how great life should be, how amazing things should always be happening. We jump on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and now even LInkedIn, to see how amazing and un-mundane life should really be.
However, let's be honest. Life is 95% mundanity with 5% grand adventure.
Mundanity takes on many forms:
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Cleaning the kitchen
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Working
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Making the bed
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Getting dressed
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Brushing teeth
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Preparing meals
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Writing daily
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Creating daily
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Learning daily
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Taking small steps
There are thousands of instances of mundanity in our daily lives.
So, what do I mean by mundane? Merriam-Webster defines mundane as:
1 : of, relating to, or characteristic of the world
2 : characterized by the practical, transitory, and ordinary : COMMONPLACE
The mundane is the practical and ordinary things we get to do. I want to find joy in the mundane and ordinary. I want to find joy in the routine. I want to be content in the moment, no matter how mundane it appears to be.
So, that is my challenge to you my friend. Be present in the mundane moment you experience, no matter what it is. Be fully present, not thinking about the, "next big thing." When you are in the midst of the mundane do not:
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Think about "the more" you should have done
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Wish your life was better
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Compare yourself to what someone else is doing
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Give room for regrets
It is easy to think our lives are ordinary and boring when we compare ourselves to the likes of (insert social media personality here).
Picture in your mind for a moment the person who you follow on social media, or the singer, or the musical band, or the actor, etc. Do you have that person in your mind? To make this practical I am going to use Jocko Willink as an example. If you do not know who he is, he is a former Navy Seal and now an influencer on leadership principles and personal development. You can find him on 'X', Instagram, etc. He has a long form podcast that comes out several times a week. He runs several businesses.
You listen to Jocko Willink's podcast. Or you read his book. It is easy to compare and think, "wow! I wish my life was like Jocko's. It is amazing." And from the outside it surely does appear amazing. However, imagine you are Jocko for a moment. Exercise is extremely important to him so he gets up at 4:30 a.m. every morning and works out. He then goes about his day doing MUNDANE tasks - writing for the podcast, making business decisions, writing for the next book, meeting with people, educating himself in preparation for his next event, paying bills, spending time with family, etc....
You and I see the end product - the book, the finished podcast, etc. We do not see the hours of mundane that Jocko goes through to make the finished product.
And that is the point. We seek the end results. We seek the outcome. But it is the the mundaneness of life - the routine, the commonplace, the basic, the doing the same thing over and over and over and over again - that produces the outcome.
Fall in love with the mundane. Yep. Fall in love. Because the mundane is the process that leads to greatness, which is the outcome. We cannot seek the outcome without loving the process. Because if we do not love the process, if we do not love the mundane, we will quickly quit when we do not see instant results.
Take a moment before you go and think the following questions:
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Where am I frustrated with myself for feeling like I am not doing enough?
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What outcome am I looking for?
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Step back and think about the mundane process you need to perform each and every day to get the outcome?
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Am I present in the mundane task I must perform? If not, why not?
Fall in love with the mundane. It is the only path to the life you want to live.
