The Cure to Boredom
I have something to confess. I was a boring person. There, I said it. I used to be so boring and I was constantly bored all the time. It was a disease I couldn’t breakaway from and I could tell that a lot of my peers were the same way.
God bless my dad because he would always try to get me to go do something, anything other than sit in front of the TV and vegetate on entertainment. My feeble mind craved the boredom, laziness, and relaxation and I would always make up some excuse to stay home. I thought I was shy and didn’t have the right friends. I would blame my peers for loving video games instead of wanting to explore and do fun things. When I say fun things, I could really only think of going to the movies. Like I said previously, boring.
My life was wasting away and I internally, hated it.
I would say one thing and do another.
What I figured out later in life after reading many books on self-development, business, sales, and marketing is that I wasn’t challenging myself. I was bored because I was taking the easy way out of life instead of putting myself in uncomfortable positions. When I say uncomfortable, I simply mean learning something new like a skill or characteristic I admired. Instead, I would choose to do NOTHING and then complain about how bored I was.
I don’t fault my parents because obviously it was my choices that led me down this path and they had 4 other sons to worry about but knowing now what I know, I wish someone would have taught me this life changing lesson while I was in high school or junior high.
“Always be learning.
If you’re learning something new, you’ll never be bored.”
There are many quotes about learning and boredom. I don’t think anyone ever phrased it in this specific way. But James Clear, the author of the best selling book “Atomic Habits”, said, “The greatest threat to success is not failure, but boredom.”
Seth Godin, another best selling author and though leader had a great blog post about boredom and the positive outcome it could have if you acknowledge it and change. You can read it here.
My older brother Luke used to say a lot, “The most dangerous man is a bored one.” The first time he said that, it struck me really hard because I was a bored man and guess what, that led to things I am not proud of. He was right.
Boredom is now a seldom feeling I experience. It took many years and some hardship, but I now know what I thoroughly enjoy learning about. I love self-development, coaching, soft skills, people skills, and people in general. When I focus on these areas I am much more productive at work, and in my free time. Time flies by in a good way and I am much more interesting to myself and to those around me.
I’m grateful for my years of boredom but I’m even more grateful for my years of intentional learning.
If you struggle with boredom, let me know. We can figure out areas that you enjoy so that you too can cure your case and become a more interesting person.
Fill out my form here and I’ll reach out.
