Why You Should Embrace Boredom To Become Successful
Beyond ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder).
Many times we associate boredom to not have anything to do and negative activities to pass the time which can lead to social problems such as loneliness, social isolation, and crime.
While boredom makes lots of people nervous and do freaky things … it’s also one of the most stable things that can bring about deep progress and allow ideas to pop freely.
Boredom can be a good thing if you use it to your advantage. Embrace it.
Think of reading, writing, coding or building things and solid businesses … they’re not exciting for most people compared to scrolling funny videos, watching TV, movies or talking.
When you get closer to people when they’re stuck or engage in toxic habits or addictions such as e.g. junk food, porn, alcohol, smoking, they always have one culprit amongst others to blame … BOREDOM.
The fear of getting bored at a later stage is what keeps most people from starting meaningful things. Researchers have attributed the extreme of this feeling to a certain disorder – ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder).
The fear of it can make you do or keep doing crazy things you hate to do which you know may not be serving you.
5 Reasons To Embrace Boredom
1: BOREDOM CAN HELP YOU BECOME MORE PRODUCTIVE
Staying focused is about saying no to distractions. When you are constantly being stimulated by external sources, it can be difficult to focus on a task for a prolonged period of time.
WHY SHOULD BOREDOM BE EMBRACED?
Embracing boredom and allowing yourself to experience it can help you to develop greater focus and concentration, which can lead to increased productivity.
What’s one guarantee to failure? – Doing 5, 8, 10 things at a time.
It’s no secret humans are bad at multitasking – we simply “task switch” which costs us our attention and quality of our efforts.
Also when you’re bored, you’re more likely to be motivated to find something to do. This can lead to you accomplishing more tasks and getting more done.
Successful people have learned to stick with a plan and do the boring work.
2: BOREDOM TEACHES YOU HOW TO BE COMFORTABLE WITH YOURSELF
Deep down of this fear of boredom – how much is because you’re afraid of judgment from others? Or being the real you.
So we’re constantly trying to play cool and showing off our best sides on social media. Embracing boredom can help you let go of the need for validation.
Being bored allows you to be alone with your thoughts and to get comfortable with yourself. This can be beneficial in many aspects of life, such as when you need to be alone to work on a project or when you’re in a situation where you can’t be with other people.
3: EMBRACING BOREDOM CAN LEAD TO BETTER HEALTH
When I was unhealthiest– I was always on a quest for the newest and tastiest processed foods.
I have a friend who is struggling with belly fat yet cannot help sipping on alcohol every time he thinks he’s bored.
Same with exercise – it was always about what looked cool over how my body felt.
Unless you don’t go to the gym for personal reasons e.g. home workouts etc – one of the reasons people dread going to the gym is because it’s boring and so you would literally do anything instead of working out.
Drinking water over beer is boring.
Cooking over feasting on processed foods can be boring
Today – I’ve embraced having boring routines for both my diet and exercise which has helped me prioritize health over aesthetics.
4: IMPROVE YOUR FINANCES
Keeping a budget
Tracking your business growth
Reading charts and spreadsheets all appear boring.
But are the primary drivers of assessing what moves the needle forward in terms of financial progress in your personal, career or business life.
Here’s how Coach Oldford puts it:
My net worth increased dramatically when I fell in love with agreements, spreadsheets and balance sheets.
Falling in love with the boring stuff, let’s you enjoy the exciting stuff.
It’s the boring stuff that builds your business.
5: BOREDOM GIVES YOU TIME TO REFLECT AND BE CREATIVE
Boredom allows us to reflect on our lives and figure out what we want to change.
When you’re bored, you have time to think about your life and what you want to achieve.
This can be a valuable opportunity to reflect on your goals and to make plans to achieve them.
This is the exact reason why personally I can’t “fit in” in most 9-5 jobs – always being “busy” and having no time to reflect is not attractive.
SHOULD YOU EMBRACE BOREDOM IN ORDER TO BECOME MORE CREATIVE?
When we’re bored, we’re not engaged in any specific task that requires our full attention.
This allows our minds to wander, which can lead to new insights and ideas.
Brainstorming and problem-solving, for example, can help you come up with new ideas and solutions to challenges you may be facing.
Engaging in hobbies that require imagination and innovation can also be a great way to exercise your creative muscles and come up with new ideas.
CONCLUSION
Overall, embracing boredom can be a useful tool for personal and professional growth, and can help you to become more successful.
If you are experiencing chronic boredom and it is affecting your daily life, it may be helpful to seek the guidance of a mental health professional to address these underlying issues.
I never knew boredom leads to productivity. Thanks for this insightful post. I learned a lot.