The Idea Is Sexy. The Doing Is Not. (And Why That's Actually Good News)

When you see that there's a gap between imagination and execution, you're already ahead of the game. Most people never get that far.

The idea of running is sexy. The crisp air, the sunrise, the Spotify playlist that syncs perfectly to your stride. But the doing? That's different. The doing is cold mornings, tight calves, and a brain that just wants to go back to bed.

It’s the same with writing. The idea of being "a writer" feels romantic. But the actual act—staring at the blinking cursor, rewriting a single sentence five times—that’s not glamorous at all.

Here's what I want you to know: we fall in love with the idea of things. The concept. The potential. The version that lives in our heads where everything flows and nothing hurts. But most growth—in running, in writing, in career reinvention—happens when we stay with the parts that don't look good on Instagram. Or Strava.

The Allure of the Idea

And nowhere is this more obvious than in career transition stories. Career reinvention has a marketing problem. Every transformation story you read makes it sound clean. Decisive. Almost inevitable.

The person was burned out in corporate, discovered their passion for entrepreneurship, made the leap, and now they're thriving.

Here's what got edited out: the six months of false starts. The networking coffee that went nowhere. The website redesign that felt pointless. The night they Googled "how do I know if I'm making a mistake" at 2 AM.

The idea of reinvention is sexy. The doing is not.

Here's the reality: It's messier than any LinkedIn post will tell you. It's like making the sausage—everyone wants the outcome, but no one wants to see how it's actually made.

We're drawn to the movie version where three months of struggle gets condensed into a two-minute sequence with the perfect soundtrack.

This gap between fantasy and process is what keeps people from starting. They think, "If it doesn't feel inspiring every day, I must be doing it wrong." But that's not how transformation works.

The value for you: understanding this gap means you stop measuring your progress against an impossible standard.

The Unsexy Truth of Practice

The real work looks repetitive. Daily runs. Draft after draft. Coaching sessions that don't produce instant breakthroughs. Quiet mornings with nothing to show for it but incremental progress.

And if you're in this messy stretch right now? You're not doing it wrong. You're doing exactly what transformation requires.

It's not that the dream was wrong. It's that we underestimate what consistency actually feels like. Here's what I've discovered: boredom is not the enemy of growth—it's the evidence of it.

Mastery is boredom managed well. It's showing up when the novelty has worn off. It's doing the thing when it stops feeling like an identity statement and starts feeling like... well, just something you do.

This applies to your career because the transformation you want is built in these ordinary moments. Not the dramatic decision to change, but the quiet work of becoming.

Career Reinvention Works the Same Way

Here's how this shows up in your career transition...

The fantasy: you transition careers and everything clicks. The reality: you're iterating, second-guessing, sending follow-ups, learning new tech, and redefining your worth in real time.

You're building the plane while flying it. You're figuring out your message while trying to get clients. You're learning to believe in yourself while the external validation is still sparse.

But here's the thing—this unglamorous stretch is where confidence and clarity are actually built. Not in the moment you decide to change, but in the weeks when you keep showing up anyway.

If the idea of reinvention is the spark, the repetition is the oxygen. Without it, that spark just flickers and dies.

What this gives you: permission to stop romanticizing the journey and start respecting the work you’re putting in.

Reframing the Work

Doing the work isn't punishment for having a dream. It's the price of admission to a more honest version of yourself.

When you embrace the unsexy parts—the boredom, the drafts, the quiet mornings—you move from idealizing the outcome to inhabiting the process. That's where the gold is.

The idea will always look prettier. But the doing? The doing is what makes it real. Every finish line you admire started as a string of ordinary days.

So keep showing up for the unsexy parts. That's where the transformation happens.

The Work That Actually Works

Think about it: What's one "sexy" idea you've been chasing—and what would it look like to simply start doing the unsexy version of it this week?

Not the Instagram version. Not the montage version. The actual, boring, repetitive, nobody's-watching version.

Because that's the version that works.

Let me know in the comments: What unsexy work are you committing to this week? I'd love to hear what you're building when no one's watching.

I’m Richard Taliaferro. I’m a certified career coach specializing in helping mid-stage professionals gain clarity on their career journey. I’ve written a guide on how to escape the work hamster wheel. Click here to download yours.