I’m not a huge sports fan, and even less so a college sports fan. But with two kids now in college, I’ve been following this year’s college football season closer than ever. And, after Notre Dame’s win over Penn State to earn its spot in the national championship game, I was stuck by a comment from Notre Dame defensive coordinator, Al Golden: “You have to embrace the mundane of it.”
Golden said that statement has become something of a mantra for his team’s defense. He credits that mindset for helping the team generate 32 turnovers this season, the most of any college football team. They do the things that create the best opportunities for turnovers, and they do them again and again. It is what the Wall Street Journal termed an “unending pursuit.”
Managing money wisely is like that. A lot of it is mundane, an endless pursuit.
Doing the work
Keeping your cash flow plan up to date is like that. Some of it is automated, but some of it is manual, and it’s best done a little each day. Making sure expenses are categorized correctly. Noticing if any charges show up that you don’t recognize. Keeping up keeps you knowledgeable about what’s happening with your cash flow so you can be proactive in pursuing goals that matter to you instead of wondering where your money went.
Investing is like that. Success has much more to do with the things you can control than things you can’t. Mundane things like regularly adding to your investment account. Dollar-cost averaging, they call it. Even that term, dollar-cost averaging, sounds so mundane. But dollar-cost average into your 401(k) for a long time and your results will be anything but mundane.
Keeping your car maintained is like that. Every 5,000 miles (more for some newer cars) or six months, whichever comes first, get the oil changed and the tires rotated. Super boring, even annoying sometimes. And super effective at making your car (and your tires) last a long time.
More than money
So many things are like that.
Marriage is like that. Daily habits. Words of encouragement and gratitude.
Parenting is like that. Enforcing boundaries, expressing love.
Health is like that. Eating food that’s good for you, getting some exercise.
In his wonderful book, “Money and Class in America,” Lewis Lapham wrote:
Television…sustains the illusion that nothing takes time.
That book was written in 1988. Today, his point has only become more magnified. Success has been made to seem ever more attainable overnight. Or at very least, quickly.
But talk with someone who has actually achieved something—a marriage that lovingly goes the distance, a 10k when walking around the block was once a stretch goal, a retirement account that will provide for their family long after their working days are over—and you’ll discover that there was nothing overnight about it.
It was about habits. Little steps taken regularly over a long period of time.
You have to embrace the mundane of it.
Take it to heart: “Steady plodding brings prosperity; hasty speculation brings poverty” (Proverbs 21:5, TLB)
Take in more: Read, Success Goes to the Steady, Not the Speedy
Take action: What are you pursuing? What daily habits will get you there? What daily habits are getting in the way?
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