I read an academic paper years ago that I still think about regularly, it is titled “The Mundanity of Excellence”.

It chronicles the observations and findings of the author who spent several years with swimmers of all levels, studying their techniques and habits. His objective was to identify the difference between the practice habits and mindsets of simply good swimmers and the decidedly great swimmers.

Here is how the paper defines one of the key attributes of the competitive swimmers: “At the higher levels of competitive swimming, something like an inversion of attitude takes place. The very features of the sport which the “C” swimmer finds unpleasant, the top-level swimmer enjoys. What others see as boring – swimming back and forth over a black line for two hours, say – they find peaceful, even meditative, often challenging, or therapeutic. They enjoy hard practices, look forward to difficult competitions, try to set difficult goals. It is incorrect to believe that top athletes suffer great sacrifices to achieve their goals. Often, they don’t see what they do as sacrificial at all. They like it…Excellence is mundane…the little things really do count.”

The best performers actually enjoy the boring, mundane parts of their training.

I have observed this to be true for anyone that operates at a high level, from athletes to businesspeople to artists. They take a certain pleasure in being willing to pay the price for success and they realize that much of what is required to achieve excellence consists of mundane, daily work.

Even though most of us are not elite athletes, we still desire to move towards our highest potential and to live our lives with excellence. But competing with these aspirations is our boredom with the mundane, our inability to focus, and our persistent impatience to move on to the next thing.

An awareness of our tendency to avoid boredom and discomfort is the first step to changing our behavior. The recognition that excellence is the result of thoughtful preparation and consistent diligence leads us to a more intentional daily practice of our craft. Practice leads to sustainable habits and soon it becomes our default behavior.

Nietzsche said, “The end of a melody is not its goal”.

Speeding up a great piece of music to get to the end defeats the purpose. We want to fully experience every note and every word. By rushing through a meeting, a repetitive task, or even a bedtime story with the kids, we are missing an opportunity to become excellent.

With this perspective, even the mundane tasks we must do everyday become part of a broader tapestry. They are important parts of the bigger picture and they matter a great deal.

This is why we love the grind. The grind is required to produce greatness.