Monday, January 6, 2014

Does 'boredom' always have to be a bad thing?

I've been thinking a lot lately about being 'bored.'

These thoughts are not just for students in school, but also for adults or anyone else for that matter.

Far too often we hear of being bored as being a bad thing.
Students are bored in class because the information is irrelevant, outdated, or presented in isolation with no clear connection to anything else. And, we've all heard it before... idle hands are the devil's playground.

Employees are bored because their job has become mundane and has become far too predictable and lacks any real excitement. And, we've all seen it... somebody has a case of the Mondays.

Outside of school and the workplace people avoid boredom like the plague because sitting around and 'doing nothing' is only for 'losers' and nobody wants to be a loser (#sarcasm).

Nobody wants to be that person sitting at home on a Friday night reading Facebook posts and Tweets about what everyone else is doing with their exciting lives...

But then I start to think about my life and what I do during these so called 'bored moments.'

*For the record I'm not bored with my job just in case my boss reads this. :)

I've found that during these moments when I don't have anything concretely planned or expected of me, I find other things to do.

Sometimes I revisit previously completed projects or ideas, while other times I explore further an idea or a project that I've been wanting to dive into.

Now, maybe I'm just talking about 20% time in a different way, but I'm starting to think that 'boredom' doesn't need to be and shouldn't always be seen as a negative.

I think we need a little boredom in our lives because it's during this time that existing things get improved and new things get discovered...