Why Self-Improvement Is So Damn Boring

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Happy Sunday everyone,

The hedonic treadmill is the tendency of humans to quickly return to their baseline level of happiness despite major positive (e.g. winning the lottery) or negative events or life changes (e.g. losing a limb).

As a person makes more money, for example, expectations and desires rise in tandem, which results in no permanent gain in happiness.

In today’s email:

1. Why Is Self-Improvement So Boring; & why you should want to be.

2. Why Changing Your Life Doesn’t Feel Life-Changing; & how to notice if your efforts are paying off.

3. Can You 3D Print Human Skin; & how it could end animal testing.

POWER SURGE

Why Self-Improvement Is Boring

There it is: your perfectly optimized Notion dashboard for the "new routine." Gym, journaling, meditation, reading - check, check, check.

It’s perfect. You're feeling pumped.

But a week later you're dragging yourself out of bed, wondering why it now feels like a chore.

Why does doing the stuff that's supposed to make us better... make us feel kind of… bored?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

We all chase that "clean slate high"—the rush of starting fresh with a new system, a new plan, a new version of ourselves.

It's intoxicating. Your brain floods with dopamine as you imagine your transformed future self.

But then reality sets in: the actual work. The repetition. The showing up.

Self-improvement starts with a high and ends with an abandoned spreadsheet.

Novelty feels like progress, but real improvement is more repetition than revelation.

The excitement of transformation gives way to the mundanity of maintenance.

And that's where most people quit.

Because at some point, self-improvement stops being about "changing your life" and starts being about doing the boring stuff consistently.

You're no longer chasing a transformation—you're sustaining one.

And that shift feels like a letdown because you're not getting the same feedback loop anymore.

No applause, no visible "before and after."

Just quiet, compounding progress.

“So what, I'm supposed to just... do this forever?”

Yes. That's exactly it.

We expect self-improvement to feel like this exciting personal revolution, but in reality, it's more like emotional weightlifting.

The gains are invisible, the sets are silent, and the progress seems boring—until you look back randomly 6 months later.

Self-improvement is as entertaining and sexy as brushing your teeth. But skip either long enough and things start to stink.

The boring stuff isn't optional—it's foundational. That's the flip most people miss. The daily practices that feel mundane are actually the bedrock of change.

When I’m struggling with going to the gym, or reading, or whatever, I remind myself that: boredom isn't the enemy of growth—it's the evidence of it. 

When you no longer need the dopamine hit of starting something new to keep going, that's when real transformation begins.

You’re no longer excited because showing up has become part of who you are, not just something you do.

Self-improvement isn't about optimizing your life. It's about becoming someone who shows up even when it's boring.

So yeah, maybe self-improvement is boring. But I've decided that's not a bug, it's a feature.

Try sticking with the boring stuff this week.

See what happens when you embrace the mundane, when you simply do the thing you committed to doing—not because it feels good, but because it is good.

The magic isn't in the planning. It's in the showing-up.

LOOK INTO THE LIGHT

Here Are 3 Great Things You Missed Recently:

#1: AI Outperforms Doctors in Virtual Urgent Care

• Cedars-Sinai found AI recommendations in virtual urgent care were often more accurate than those of physicians.

• AI was particularly strong at detecting resistant infections, a major challenge in remote diagnoses.

• This shows promise for integrating AI to enhance virtual healthcare without replacing human judgment.

#2: 3D-Printed Human Skin Could End Cosmetic Animal Testing

• Austrian and Indian scientists developed a 3D-printed skin model with living human cells.

• The model can mimic human skin and survive for weeks, offering a realistic testing platform

• This could eliminate the need for animal testing in cosmetics and skincare industries.

#3: New Tech Allows Mass-Production of Cancer-Fighting Particles

• MIT developed a scalable method to mass-produce drug-coated nanoparticles

• These particles deliver chemotherapy directly to tumours, reducing harm to healthy tissue

• This advance could make targeted cancer treatments more effective and accessible.

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Wisdom or Wires

Which of these quotes is AI-generated?

Thank you for reading!

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