Avoiding boredom
I first thought of boredom as a terrible thing. So, I would (and still do in some respect)seek out anything to keep my mind busy. I tried anything to keep the boredom away, so I would indulge in video games, Netflix, a magazine, call someone, text someone etc. Anything and everything that kept me “focused” and “on task,” no matter what that task was, seemed like progress.
However, nothing is worse than progress in the wrong direction, and making yourself do things for the sake of doing them often leads you in the wrong direction. After heading the wrong direction a few times ( uh oh, how did I end up in a pasta making class when I hate to cook),I had to think of something different. It didn’t reconcile with my idea that time is our only resource when I looked for specific things to do to waste it.
How do you stop that?
Maintaining boredom
I turned off everything, now there are no notifications on my phone, I beat the video games I planned on beating, and I avoided the “Netflix machine” (my TV). I decided that I was going to try to see what boredom brings. Instead of looking at learning how to slice tomatoes, I decided I would sit in my room and dedicate the time to absolutely nothing.
I turned on a YouTube speech I heard several times and just sat there (I cheated, but it’s a start). I recognized, rather quickly, that the brain is a rebel. When I tried to do nothing, a whole list of to-do’s appeared in my head. I thought about quests I didn’t complete in RPG’s, old work projects I never scuttled, and if I cleaned my sink correctly.
In short, any and everything that came up was a distraction.
What happened?
After sitting there for almost three hours doing mental gymnastics, something appeared and didn’t stop. I ended up recognizing my need to “minimalize,” and remove the stuff around me that I didn’t use anymore. I just shot a video on minimalism, and it didn’t surprise me that this came up.
After sitting there for some more time, I put it together. I had the why set in my head, and the impulse to start. I completed it.
This isn’t a story of me cleaning my apartment deeply, but something more interesting.
Why was the boredom important
What I didn’t see until I sat there was the reason I kept all of this stuff was because I wasn’t moving on with my life. All of my old trinkets from my office littered my apartment. Most of it was stuff I didn’t use, didn’t need, and allowed me to feel comfortable with old ideas from the office.
The cleaning represented me stripping the extra weight from quitting and retrofitting the rest to help propel me into this new chapter. Those thoughts lived under (no pun intended) all my other ideas, and colored my decision-making since I quit. Since I did it, I feel amazing and now the old stuff I had is now fitting in my life now.
I couldn’t have gotten there without dealing with the boredom I had.
I am fully free to start this new chapter.
From the desk of Adam Thomas 