Boredom is state in which one experiences a pervasive lack of interest in certain activities.
It can be momentary or it can be experienced on a more frequent basis.
If you’re following a strict routine that doesn’t allow you much flexibility, if you’re not inspired by your work, and if you’re not getting better at what you do, then you will most likely experience boredom. This is the kind of temporary boredom that can be fixed with a few lifestyle modifications.
However, if you’re bored on a more frequent basis and you find yourself trying to keep yourself distracted just to get by, then you have to do some introspection about what you want to do with your life. You have to find your passion and discover your purpose.
In this post, you will find tips that will help you get past boredom and become meaningfully engaged with what you love to do.
1. Free time
People experience boredom when they have a lot of time on their hands.
If you don’t have a demanding job and you’re home every weekday by 4 or 5 pm and don’t have much to do, then you’re surely bored out of your mind. You have at least 6 hours a day every day, not including weekends, of free time.
And that’s time you can use to be happy.
If you have financial aspirations, then why not start a small online business? It costs little to nothing to start a website these days and publish your content. You will learn a lot of fun things about the internet and how google works. In addition, you can market your products and services to virtually any human being that has access to the internet. Take advantage of that opportunity and see how it works.
If you enjoy personal growth, then why not look to develop in yourself in an area that interests you. You don’t need any money to learn new skills these days. If you want to learn to play a new instrument, then go on Youtube and search for free lessons. You can find on there pretty much anything you want from gardening to computer programming.
I personally had an interest in doing card tricks. I couldn’t even shuffle cards but I was inspired to give it a try. So I learned everything on Youtube…for free. And within 3 months of practice, I was getting good results. My friends were impressed with my skills, and some thought I always knew how to perform card magic. I still do my tricks at gathering with friends and we all get a good kick from it. It’s fun.
In addition to using the internet to learn fun things, you can also sign up for online classes and leave with a solid skill set. Go on Udemy and check out their repertoire of online classes. You can also find bloggers whose work you like and get in contact with them. Send them an email and tell them you like their work. Ask if they have some tips for you. That’s a great way to take proactive action to address your boredom. You can also use Quora to get free advice on virtually any question.
2. Passion
The best cure for boredom is to find your passion.
What do you enjoy doing that you want to turn into a full-time pursuit? Why makes you want to get up in the morning and run after your goals?
When I ask people about their passion, they get tongue-tied. They believe they need to give a compelling answer. And they often want others to be impressed by the answer they give.
That’s the wrong paradigm to be in.
It really doesn’t matter what others think about what you love to do. They may not understand what you love to do, they may have superficial experiences with it, and they may just not care. At the end of the day, other people’s opinions about your passion doesn’t matter. What matters is what you think about it.
And if you still haven’t figured out your passion, then here’s a simple way to go about it. Most often, you don’t need to dig deep in order to find what you’re passionate about. You just have to look at two things:
- What you’re good at; and
- The role model that you aspire to be like
That’s really it.
You don’t need any fancy formulas or equations to find your passion.
From there on, all you need to do is to identify the steps, people, and institutions that can help you get there. Along the way, you will discover what you really want to do. You may even reinvent your passion along the way. The experience itself will tell you that, but sitting at home and looking for the answer in your head will give you a headache.
3. Challenge
People are bored because they don’t find their tasks challenging enough. But they also experience boredom when the challenge is too enormous for them.
The best way to enjoy what you’re doing and avoid boredom is to pick a task will allow you to experience a “flow” state. See this post for more on this point.
But in addition to picking a task that can allow you to “get in the zone,” you also need to be motivated to pursue a certain challenge. To that, I say use your imagination first.
Imagination is your best ally if you want to explore your ingenuity and take meaningful action in your life.
Have you imagined yourself living the life you desire? How did it feel? What did you see? What are the sounds that you heard? What people did you meet? What friendships did you form?
Creating a compelling image of what your life could look like will incentivize you to take action. It costs you nothing to imagine your dreams realized. It’s where original ideas are born. It’s the place where we find solutions to our problems. Use it and explore your inner world in a way that would allow you to go beyond the boring circumstances that you’re living right now.