Boredom got you? Escape it or shape it. I can show you how.

Boredom is often an umbrella complaint for the various dissatisfactions of my coaching clients about their job, schoolwork, relationships, or life. When they don’t actually say their job is boring, for example, they may say it is unfulfilling, it lacks meaning, it is too rote or it’s time for a change. Same with school or relationships. They may also have some habits they want to change which arise from boredom, habits like procrastination or seeking unwise diversions. So I have developed ways of helping clients discover their individual Elements of Interest. I support them in facing boredom by escaping it or shaping it. For example, they either find a job or activities that include these Elements of Interest or they find a way to bring these Elements into their current job or into their life so their job becomes more tolerable.

My intent is to attract clients who want to know more about what really engages them happily in life and how to pursue it and to learn more myself. In blogging about boredom and by following blogs about boredom, I learn amazing things, not only about boredom and its repercussions but also about the daily lives and interests ...

As a maven of boredom, I cruise through blogs, finding about eight posts a day that complain bitterly about boredom, discuss boredom philosophically or just label particular books, people, athletic endeavors, music, etc., as boring. I often write to the purveyors of boredom comments. Sometimes I ask if I may quote them, other times I just open a conversation. One willing conversant, one Henry Berry, has a pithy approach to boredom: To parents of children who complain, “I’m bored.” Henry suggests they reply, “Be bored.” When I replied that, “What are you going to do to entertain yourself?” might be a better parental come-back, Henry asked, “Why entertain?” To another comment, he replied only, “How can you be so sure?” Finally, he proposed that we conduct a running interview; he’d ask me a question and I’d answer it on my blog; I’d ask him a question, and he’d answer it on his blog. <http://henryberry.blogspot.com> I agreed. Here’s his first question:

Q. How and why did you first get interested in boredom?

A. As the question reveals, I am difficult to bore. Though, Lord knows, people have tried.

My interest in boredom started as a job ...

In a recent book BoredOut: Overcoming Workplace Demotivation, European authors Rothlin and Werder describe the condition, which is, as the title suggests, something like burnout and caused by boredom. They attributed job boredom to having too little challenge and meaning. People who dislike the tasks their jobs require, the authors say, avoid these tasks and therefore have nothing at all to do, which makes them even more bored. The condition only escalates. Apparently few whom the authors studied attempted to make their jobs more interesting.

 

At first, I thought the nothing-to-do-at-work dilemma must be fairly rare in the United States because, in my circles, people have more work than they can do, though it may be boring, and, with an economy spiraling down, layoffs put more work on fewer people. That in itself is a challenge that tends to fend off boredom. However, I follow blogs where boredom is a topic, and I find many people write, “I’m so bored, I ‘m about to go out of my mind. I’ve finished all my work, straightened my files, and here’s nothing to do.” They often use the expression “kill time,” which strikes me as a tragic expression.

 

Of course, ...

I just read an article online posted from St. Louis about how to get a good treadmill type workout without boredom. Go to the city's famous Arch and use the stairs and trail for a run, jog, or walk. The post in the St. Louis Fitness Examiner gives detailed instructions about how and where to warm up, add resistance, slow down a bit, pick it up, etc, for an hour. We all know how to walk or run and we all know stairs are more demanding than flat ground. The value of the advice in the article is reminding us that changing locale and scenery is what we need to keep motivated and that we don't need to spend money to get our fitness work out (well, some gas money to get there). Writer Jason Smalheer suggests we could get a similar workout at any number of St. Louis public spaces. I must add we could do it in any town. The idea is to get variety. Mr. Smalheer says to put music on your MP3...that's where I differ from most people; for me music is distracting and I like to look around and see the details of the new ...

That’s what the review said: “Castrated.” I read reviews—reviews of sports I don’t play, books I don’t read, restaurants I can’t afford, movies I don’t see. And among the delicious descriptions of talent and taste, there is always the one kiss of death: boredom.

Critics expect unbelievable performances from the athletes along with charisma off the field or they are boring. They expect unique dishes from the chef when they, the critics, eat at a different restaurant every night or they call the food “mundane.” How many unique dishes can there be? And how can a heavy metal band excite you to new heights?

Iann Robinson, a recent reviewer of an album titled “Wrath” by the heavy metal band Lamb of God explained:

“Reviewing an album like Wrath is really where a writer earns his keep because nothing here is easy. You can’t fully pan the album because it doesn’t suck but at the same time there’s nothing here to really get excited about. What’s even more disheartening is that sections of the album border on real brilliance but those are quickly castrated for the obligatory mosh parts and over-played solos.” 

Yes, I can see the dilemma: “real brilliance” ...

You’ve finished the rough draft of your new brochure and it was exciting to see the big picture and get it down in a few pithy words You’re feeling good about yourself. Now what? Celebrate. Open that bag of chocolate chip cookies…or chips of any kind. Or let’s see, it’s 5 o’clock, quitting time, time for a beer. Of course, that’s where the beer advertising slogan “Miller Time” came from.

When we are deeply engaged in a task, we forget about ourselves and connect completely with the demands of the task. It’s good; we are “in the flow” which is the opposite of boredom. We don’t feel tired, hungry or thirsty. If we are “in the flow” much of the time, our life is mostly fulfilling. When that state of flow ends, we may need a break to clear our minds before we can get deeply involved in the next activity or next phase. That break is necessary but often an invitation to boredom. It’s the sudden nothingness after a period of stimulation. 

We think, “Okay, I’m not doing anything now, chilling out, let’s see. Maybe I’ll play a video game or ….”  And we scan our mental list ...

Freedom is key to beating boredom. Fantasy is one of the few interesting things you can do even when not free.

I’ve coached people who are bored in their jobs and who were able to make some adjustments to make work more interesting. But they had a fair amount of freedom to act. Those who are not free, those in sight of the boss and not allowed to do jumping jacks while a slow computer saves/prints documents or who must face someone with eyes focused as opposed to glazed over, have a hard time jazzing up their boring tasks.

I just heard from a woman in a four-person office where two of the people are the mom and pop in a mom-and-pop business. For a while she did boring work but could talk to the other non-boss employee and that kept her feeling comfortable. Then mom or pop separated them just so they wouldn’t talk, so they would get more work done. I recommend she turn to fantasy!

For me, fantasy is the most effective way of fighting off boredom when being watched. I keep working while I fantasize. Nobody can see the fantasy in my head. Here’s ...

 

I don’t exercise as much as I wish I did. Who does? George Cohon, that’s who.

 

The founder of McDonald’s of Canada, according to an article in Monday’s Globe and Mail, stays fit by daily exercise and avoids boredom by variety.

The seventy something business mogil does different kinds of exercise on different days, biking for an hour two or three times a week, playing golf twice a week, the same for tennis. He also swims and walks with his golden retriever. Like me, he also varies his walking route for a change of scenery. "I love variety. It prevents boredom,” he says. “I [recently] rode to the ocean and along the beach where there were boats and lots of people and activity to keep my interest and make the ride even more enjoyable," he says.

Note that tennis and golf add competition to his regime; competition is another Element of Interest for many people as is the skill building involved in such sports.

Gardening ...

As a motivation coach, I follow news of BOREDOM. I see frequent news items about people who commit crimes large and small “because I was bored.”  This goes from some British teens who sat over a highway and threw rocks at cars, causing damage and accidents, to a New York druggie who did a deal with a man in his apartment, left, and then came back and killed him “because I was bored.”

The sad truth is that these people actually are bored (as well as misguided). “Bored” is a word used to cover various discomforts. In the case of these criminals, it means lack of purpose in life, lack of meaning, no plan, no understanding of their interests or what makes them tick, no knowledge of what to do, so they do the first thing that comes into their heads. This applies to a lot of ordinary people who are not even thinking of committing a crime or other stupid act. Thousands of good-hearted people every day complain bitterly of boredom in online posts.

BTW, good-hearted people, today is the LAST day to sign up for my free boredom busting, purpose buillding teleseminar (costs only the phone call ...

(SPECIAL OFFER: MAKE 2009 YOUR EXCITING YEAR  I’m doing a group teleseminar (FREE except for the phone charges to my conference line) on Saturday, January 10 at 10 AM Eastern Standard Time—New York time). If you want to kick off the New Year with a passion, click on Contact Me and let me know so I can send you a phone number and participant code.)

For a feeling that many people (erroneously) consider nothing or an absence of feeling, many writers have found eloquent even startling words to describe boredom. Here are some recent gleanings from the Internet:

Benedict Carey wrote online in The Wrestler about boredom as "pockets of dead air, periods when the sails go slack." 

Journalist Bill Cope, writing in the Boise Weekly, said the let-down after covering the presidential campaign/election was "a tidal wave of boredom. A pyroclastic blast of boredom. A category five typhoon of boredom....when it hit, it was a zillion cubic tons of lukewarm boredom."  He did recover and wrote, "the boredom sludge is receding and in the aftermath, I'm finding a few things to pique my interest." 

Not just professional writers are eloquent about the state of boredom. Chris Dowsett (TheAfternoonBreak.com) wrote ...