I'm Bored

I just watched You Need to Be Bored by Harvard Business Review and it has sparked some thoughts!

When my kids tell me that they are bored, I typically respond with a Great! or that's not a bad thing, congratulations. I tell them that I was bored once and look how I turned out! Recently, my son told me he was bored so I told him to get his shoes on and we went for a walk around the neighborhood. He wasn't bored anymore and we had a great moment. While not exactly what Arthur Brooks is talking about in the video, I hope it created a meaningful moment in my son's life. It let him know that it is OK to come up with a change in perspective when being bored.

I remember as a teenager playing video games for hours and then just setting the controller down and thinking that I was bored. I had just spent hours sitting looking at a TV screen and moving characters around accomplishing irrelevant tasks for no benefit. Fast forward to today and I have tried to use my phone less recently and have removed all social media from my phone. I still feel that pull to see what my favorite online creators have said about the new iPhone or what news story everyone is talking about. These scenarios highlight how my life is a mix of constant entertainment and my brain's need for boredom.

My brain needing to stop and rest.

I'm not the only one affected by phones. At lunch with my co-workers, we sit around for an hour and stare at our screens. We will have discussions, but the screens are always on and begging to be scrolled. This sometimes sparks conversation when someone mentions a current event they just scrolled past. What I really want, though, is to eat in my office in silence. As an introvert, it is very taxing to try and talk with my co-workers and then get up and go right back to being productive. I need some time to stop and process what has happened throughout the day and then focus on what I need to work on.

Have you ever intentionally tried to be bored? What happened?