The Beauty of Being Bored
Boredom has a bad reputation.
It is a slow and dull experience, and it offers little emotional stimulation. It makes hours feel like days. Its all-consuming nature feeds off of energy and happiness, and it leaves you feeling static and hollow.
Look at it another way, and its monotony is what makes it so beautiful.
The Golden Opportunities of Boredom.
Situations that present fewer sources of stimulation are ones that also present the best opportunities for mental peace, focus, and creativity.
Now, of course, we do need some stimulation in order to move forward. Great scholars and artists depend on various sensory experiences to learn and find inspiration. Even just the average person needs to explore the facets of their world to maximize their development.
But in today’s world, there are too many sources of stimulation. There are too many media outlets, places, and things to do. Which breeds distraction (and a dependence on instant gratification).
Boredom is the antidote to this.
It provides a mental state without real challenge, and its distraction-less nature of slowing things down can have a calming effect on the mind and body. Without your usual distractors, you nurture your focus. In this state of little to no movement, you have a brilliant opportunity to train yourself to become more patient (and, thus, more successful in all aspects of your life): to no longer rely on external factors to stimulate your comfort.
To creative individuals, boredom has an added value. In a state with little stimulation, your mind will work harder to stimulate itself by making new and interesting connections between pieces of knowledge and experience, which can serve as creative inspiration. By fully utilizing your periods of boredom (that is, without seeking to “remove” your boredom), you might increase your brain’s ability to find and form creative ideas.
The thing is: It takes a lot of energy to be creative. You don’t have that energy if you waste it on other stuff. (Austin Kleon, “Steal Like An Artist”)
Sometimes, monotony serves as the best opportunity for positive change.
The Valuable Introspection of Boredom.
Everything you do is a product of your innermost values.
The things you do (and the things you choose not to do) all signal an underlying prioritization of one value over another. If you dedicate time and effort to improving your life, you value growth. If you spend each day chasing constant stimulation and distraction, you value comfort instead.
Like expert on self-improvement Stephen Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) notes, actions can breed progress or regress. In order to truly develop, you must live a principle-centered life, where you commit to the notions you value most in life (like discipline, kindness, or honesty). By prioritizing certain values and acting in accordance with these, you can live life your ideal way.
Fortunately, being bored is a good way to spot and alter your true priorities.
In boredom, you are unmoving. Time and space seem slow and still, and the only way out is action. Boredom is a clean slate, and depending on the values you prioritize, you may fill it with an activity that is either fulfilling or distracting.
Another perk is that it allows you to practice your self-discipline. When you are bored, you are largely unchallenged and unmotivated. Because of this, boredom offers you a chance to seek out a challenging activity on the basis of the merit of its underlying values rather than how much it motivates you in the moment.
Therefore, boredom allows you to assess your underlying values and steer your time, attention, and energy toward the things that truly matter to you.
Boredom might feel static, but it carries a lot of potential for growth.
