100 Business Days Out: Day 94 - BOREDOM IS A CHOICE (#7Lesson)

When I was a kid I would get punished when I used the word "bored" or said, "I was bored". I was taught that there are too many things to do in life to ever become bored. It didn't make sense to me at the time, but it sure does now. There is never a reason to be bored. I marvel at the people I know who have retired and come back to work because they got bored. What I have learned over these nearly 100 Business Days Out is that becoming bored is a choice that one makes or not. I personally can't imagine that I would ever get bored, what with all that I want to do but haven't even been able to get to yet. What I think happens is that people misinterpret doing what they have always done (as the easy and known way) and trying and learning new things (the harder and more unknown) and when the new is too hard or they aren't good at it the first time, they stop. Then, they run out of things to do and consequently, they choose to become bored. I have seen some of that in me too. There are things which I want to learn to be good. They are new and different to me. They are hard and take time...maybe even the rest of my life to become good at them. They use different physical or mental muscles and because I know the things I am good at already (and like doing them and when I did them because I was good at them I got praised or rewarded) I want to continue to do them over and over. That would be a good reason to go back to work. But what an interesting and difficult cycle life can become. We take and change jobs because the work seems boring. We go back to work because we are getting bored out of work. The lesson to me is that boredom is clearly nothing but a choice of attitude and approach to life. There is no shortage of things for me to do, whether I am good at them or not. And, maybe this isn't the point in the first place. It's not whether I am good at them or not, it's what I am trying and doing to become good at something or to do good with what I do. My parents were right, and how much better we might all be if we felt punished or felt guilty every time we throught we were bored. Imagine the possibilities of the new things we would try and do if we all thought this way.