The One Thing That Will Always Get You Out Of Boredom

Introduce a little bit of struggle into your life

“Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart. Live for it, die for it, and you will find the happiness you had thought could never be yours.” — Dale Carnegie.

Many people think one can live a life without boredom. But is it really true?

As humans, it’s really difficult for one not to experience boredom. Because in the words of Arthur Schopenhauer, wants and boredom are the twin poles of human life. I bet if you ask Jeff Bezos, Lebron James, Beyonce and other celebrities you know they will tell you they experience boredom once in a while.

The problem with boredom is that we’ve termed it to be a negative thing and that is why we are always seeking the constant need for an escape from it all the time.

In our effort to avoid boredom, we rush here and there, trying to keep our minds active and engaged. When we’re bored, we fill the gap immediately with food, alcohol, sex, shopping, TV watching and other activities. We have a drive for diversion when we can’t stand to be in the state of boredom.

When we are uncomfortable with ourselves, with what’s in our minds and hearts, we feel bored. Learning to be alone with yourself, your thoughts, and your feelings will help you to reduce the availability of boredom in your life. Using television, food, or other people as a way of not being alone with yourself is only temporary relief. Once the TV is off, the food is gone, and the people have left, you’re still alone with yourself.

But have you ever thought of using boredom to your advantage?

When you look around today and see why lots of people use social media to numb themselves away from boredom, you can only find one thing in common. It’s that they aren’t making art. Yuval Noah Harari was right when he said if you don’t know what you want in life, it will be too easy for technology to shape your aims for you and take control of your life.

What is your art?

If you’re an artist, chances are that you experience boredom every now and then. Why? Because boredom sometimes comes in the form of resistance to hinder you from your work. Resistance knows how hard the task will be and uses boredom to nudge us away from it while offering us all kinds of easy ways out.

Think about it Bill Gates came up with the concept of think week where you are all alone by yourself with your books and your reading material with no digital distraction. What does that tell you?

It only means he’s using boredom as a distraction from the art he’s making which is running his business. Boredom, by contrast, is an opportunity for us to meet our own needs to turn inward rather than outward and tend to our emotions, interact with our creativity, and give our brains a break.

He who seeks rest finds boredom. He who seeks work finds rest. Dylan Thomas

Why do you think many celebrities, athletes, actors, sportsman, musicians and the likes result in drugs when most of them retire from their active life? It’s because they become bored when they retire from their active life. And once they retire, many of them stop making art. And when they stop making art, the only thing that can constantly elevate them away from boredom is drugs simply put our bad habits are simply a way of dealing with stress and boredom.

In other words, the art from their active life that once gives them meaning or responsibility no longer gives them meaning anymore. And Viktor Frankl put it best when he said it is in responsibility that most people find the meaning that sustains them through life. Creating whatever form of art in a way can give you that responsibility.

So you aren’t bored, it’s just that you aren’t making art.

Your art can be writing, painting, designing, coding, running a business, singing or anything. In other words, art is creation and in the wise words of Dejan Stojanovic that says “creating means living.”

Boredom shouldn’t be something you run away from as an artist or as a creator but rather something you use to distract yourself from work. Why? Because boredom signals to the mind that you’re in need of fresh thoughts and spurs of creative thinking like Bill Gates think week.

I have a colleague who complains about how bored she is and the only thing she does is go on social media and youtube to numb the boredom away. The next day she iterates the same thing over and over.

What is she creating? Nothing.

What is she learning? Nothing.

If you have stopped growing, feeling stuck in life, or are just plain bored, try re-introducing struggle into your life. And making art is a way of introducing a struggle in your life.

If you are not creating and you aren’t learning anything, chances are that you will always get bored. Why you may ask?

Because boredom is on the far side of happiness. And happiness is on the far side of being useful while usefulness is on the far side of creation. You see how boredom all comes down to creating. Whenever you want to get someone out of boredom, give him/her a responsibility or something to struggle for.

Writing got me out of boredom when I had nothing to struggle for. And now, that same boredom is what I use to spur for creative ideas in my writing. I even wrote an article of what boredom did to me and how I got to be a better person with it. But it all started only when I was ready to find something to struggle for.

“You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we’re doing it,” said Neil Gaiman.

The world is never tired of creators. As a matter of fact, we all are born to create one way or the other. And as a creator, if there is anything you must aim for, it should be this.

Mastery

“The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions”. Alfred Lord Tennyson

You cant become something if you don’t learn it. Meaning to become a master, you must learn to become a master.

Steve Jobs, Tiger Woods, Beyonce, Robert Greene, Bill Gates and the likes are all masters in their respective field. You know why? Because they have paid their dues in learning to become a master. And in the wise words of pindar that says you become who you are by learning who you are.

Mastery doesn’t mean you know it all rather it means there is always a room to keep improving. And author Ryan Holiday put it best when he said there is no excuse for ever ending the process of improving.

The philosopher Socrates took the improvement quote a step further when he said ‘Just as one person delights in improving his farm, and another his horse, so I delight in attending to my own improvement day by day. The day by day improvement in your life and in your art is what gets you to mastery.

When we say someone has mastered their craft, art, or work, what we are alluding to is their ability to grasp, and then fine-tune the finer details that encompass the palette of their vocation to produce remarkable results says Eze Onukwube.

So why should a creator aim for mastery to avoid boredom? This is because when you get to the mastery level with your art, not only do you see boredom as a distraction anymore, rather you see boredom as a new challenge to conquer. And in the words of Tony Fahkry that says we must strive to attain self-mastery if we wish to live while we are still alive.

In all, Boredom will always return again and again and we must all face it, and choose to sit with it until we are able to transform it into something positive for ourselves. Will you accept the up and down cycles of life, or distract yourself from them in an effort for short-term pleasure? The choice is yours.

So I urge you learn a new art, practice your art, make art, improve your art and above all strive for mastery while creating, and you will see that boredom is the thin line between creation and happiness.

Remember, you are not bored it’s that you aren’t making art.