Boredom can be a challenging emotion to deal with, and it is natural to want to avoid feeling bored at all costs. However, embracing boredom and allowing yourself to experience it can actually be beneficial for your personal and professional growth.
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.
Boredom is also blamed for negative mental health effects such as anxiety, depression, and even suicide.
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).
I’m not here for labels or conventional jargons – the point is BOREDOM is a powerful force that can be used to create big things or mar your progress.
The fact is most meaningful things get boring. Because Important things are usually boring and are usually outside of our comfort zones.
Sticking to a niche without chasing shiny objects is boring.
Learning a skill can be boring.
Eating healthy foods is boring
Having a healthy relationship without drama and unreasonable inconsistency can be boring.
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.
What are the benefits of boredom? 10 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: Getting used to Boredom can help you attain Mastery in what you do
Only through embracing boredom can you achieve say 10,000 hours in any skill.
Nothing feels better than working, having your habits/routines in place and focusing on growing.
All masters in any field put in more work in private than the results they bring out in public.
They simply learned to embrace doing the boring things in their field which puts them ahead of the average person.
Love the boring work folks … the harder it is, the more you should want it to become expert.
3: 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.
4: Build Healthy relationships
Most toxic relationships are full of extreme highs and lows. There’s always one drama you’re anticipating or the other.
Of course you can consciously bring one fun or the other but a healthy relationship is for the most part consistent and may appear “boring.”
If you cut out all those dramas then you’re start seeing what it feels like to be in a “normal” relationship.
But first you need to go beyond “surface conversations” or only “seeking pleasure” to even get to this level.
5: 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.
6: 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.
7: Grow your business
It’s the boring stuff that builds your business.
People are impatient.
No one wants to show up everyday understand that life’s a number game or be uncomfortable.
Ability to do 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 is a big criteria for business success.
Everybody wants to own trendy companies and become the next success story. Then you notice you still have a lot of tedious and boring work e.g. the writing or coming up with content, networking, the following up, and the background thinking to do before you get there – that’s separates winners from those who barely get by.
Fact is, if you’ve got the patience to go through times that seem boring and keep moving forward, you’ve got the keys to success in your hand!
8: Increase your Faith
Faith and fear don’t coexist.
It takes faith to trust that you can succeed and get through things without being nervous of “what to do” and “what not to do” all the time.I wrote this to question my fears and stop being afraid of staying still.
9: Boredom Gives You Time to Reflect
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 I can’t “fit in” in most 9-5 jobs – always being “busy” and having no time to reflect is not attractive.
Boredom allows us to reflect on our lives and figure out what we want to change.
10: Boredom can lead to creativity
When you are bored, your brain is not being stimulated by external sources, which can lead to a feeling of restlessness.
This restlessness can then drive you to find ways to entertain yourself, which can lead to increased creativity and problem-solving skills.
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.
This is especially true if we consciously try to use boredom as an opportunity to engage in activities that stimulate our minds and allow for creative thinking. such as brainstorming, problem-solving, or engaging in hobbies that require imagination and innovation.
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.
However, it is important to note that boredom can also be a sign of underlying issues such a lack of motivation, anxiety or depression.
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 got attracted to tech from an early age getting close to my Father. Coupled with learning some high end skills i was able to build a 6 figure Ecommerce store a few years ago after graduating from Pharmacy.
The only way I have found to express myself as an introvert is through writing.
I’m convinced 100% that to build a 6-7-figure business and beyond you need to invest in yourself and your personal development.
The more you grow, the more your business will grow.
PS: I wrote a short book on why you don’t need more motivation and how to push through in such moments – get it here: