Missing out to be bored

It occurred to me that I cannot recall the last time I have been bored. As I child I remember being bored on many (rainy) days. After playing Lego for hours I became too tired to find the right pieces, so I ended up being bored.

In the state of boredom one lacks the will to start any activity. It is either a missing external or intrinsic input.

Having grown up with the sheer limitless amount of TV episodes and internet memes, I cannot recall being bored in my youth and later on. Nowadays, I am getting distracted by my smartphone on the slightest approach of boredom. I cannot concentrate long enough and my attention span is shorter than ever.

Paying attention is the new thing and eastern philosophy has become widespread in the western hemisphere. We seek the state of tranquility or lets say the state of being bored. Distraction has become a major problem and we are reminded more that often of the nostalgic past when there were days without end.

Don’t we miss something out by not being bored?

Don’t we miss something out by not being bored? I certainly believe yes. Whenever we are bored we start to emphasize on our self. We start to reflect and let our thoughts flow. Thoughts and ideas that have been submerged in the unconsciousness arise again and take shape.

I don’t have to go into details about how distraction (the opposite of boredom) is bad for you. There are tons of posts about this issue. Let’s focus on what we get when being bored.

The biggest miss of not being bored to me is the intrinsic motivation. Coming up with creative ideas that serve our motivation only and put that idea into action is a product of boredom.

Most of the time we are pushed by external factors and therefore our actions might not match our values. While being bored we reflect and pay attention to our needs.

We should not focus on how to avoid being distracted, but on what we get by being bored.