by Tim Moore

 

If you've missed The Eagles during recent tours you've missed a lot. So many times legacy acts can be disappointing; they've simply lost a few miles-per-hour off their fastball. Not so with The Eagles. Harmonies are not so much as a quarter step sharp or flat, live arrangements mirror or exceed studio versions. From Joe Walsh out front with Pretty Maids...to the  band's epic hits, The Eagles playing, singing, and back-line team are an incredible monument to super-human talent and unfailing consistency over four decades.
 
Sometime over the past five years, an entertainment scribe posed a good question to Don Henley, as he probed the band's never-ending acuity on stage or in-studio. "So Don, I have to ask, how is it possible year in, year out, you guys can muster the energy and the intensity to perform at or above the level of your formative years?" In inimitable Henley style, somewhat indifferent, deadly sincere, Henley's answer offered a classic teachable moment. "Gee...I don't know...I guess you just have to learn to love boredom."
 
I've reflected on this countless times. It's the campaign theme in the lives of practitioners of the "great" including people like Michael Jordan, Rush Limbaugh, Meril Streep, Bob & Tom or Tiger Woods. Have they in fact, learned to love boredom? Before we become influenced by the word boredom, perhaps its best to articulate it as "the art and science of doing the basics elegantly" day after day, decade upon decade. If Ron Chapman, Bob Redford, or Dewey Bunnell were asked the same question posed to Don Henley, it's a safe bet they'd put it just so.
 
What does this have to do with the price of rice in Rangoon, or more specifically our quality of life devoted to our profession? Possibly it's incredibly relevant to our outlook on the current-state, and, our sense of self-fulfillment. The hardest single thing to accomplish after a great performance or an astounding victory, is the next small skirmish in daily routine or self- discipline in our time control and organizational regimen.  It seems the secret to long-running high performance lies in the enthusiasm for small stuff, and everlastingly consistent scrutiny of our body of work. When a PGA player (even a so-called senior like Greg Norman or Tom Watson) finishes a torunament round, you'll find them on the practice tee hitting 100 golf balls, rarely in the lounge waiting for a cold one.
 
As we view air talent and sellers, we only rarely experience them listening to a segment of the day's show, or re-playing the branding presentation done hours before. Without disrespect, we may conclude that as opposed to the urban legend that "it's crowded at the top," in reality it's really not; for no other reason than so few are willing to do what's required to get there. So few have ever "learned to love boredom."