Boredom and the Struggle of Finding Something To Do

Boredom. It is a feeling that is slowly creeping back into my life. Being in my mid-thirties, I usually find myself in a ceaseless cycle of task shifting. Society places a great burden on this decade as a period of maximum productivity. It also seems to overlap with several milestones like marriage, children, and taking care of your parents & grandparents. Between that and work, finding time for yourself is usually rare. 

My New Year’s resolution was to become more organized. I have been optimizing my schedule to free up time during the week. I became laser-focused on learning new topics like building my business and how to merge and acquire new ones. During this evolution and life overhaul, I discovered moments where everything I needed to do was done. In these ethereal moments of boredom, I was forced to stop. When there’s nothing to do, I become afflicted with anxiety and a sinking sensation like I had misplaced my purpose. Whenever my emotions send me strange signals, I turn inward and try to meditate.

After lying still for 20-30 mins a day for about a week, nothing happened at first. I still found myself on cognitive auto-pilot going through apps on my phone in a specific sequence and constantly checking the inbox for updates every ten minutes around the clock. I was just waiting for something to happen. As I progressed with the daily meditation, I finally made a discovery. Ironically, I discovered that a majority of what I do in my free time involve doing things by myself. I don’t know when or how that happened. I may have confused independence with isolation. I work out in my home gym. I prepare food at home. I write blog posts. I work from home remotely. I read and listen to audiobooks. I play story-based, single-player videos games. I watch anime. I primarily communicate via emails and messages. The hobby projects I like to start involve me building things alone. I don’t have personal social media. I am simply–here. 

Resisting an existential crisis, I tried to remember what I wanted to do as a kid. As kids, we dream big and the world is limitless. I wanted to be an astronaut and a teenage mutant ninja turtle on the weekends. One thought led to another and I found myself researching the astronaut selection process. One of the things they are required to do is fly a jet airplane. Some of these astronauts are doctors and scientists. They didn’t have any prior military experience but they had to learn it anyway. That was it. I want to learn how to fly. Now I have something new to work toward. A feeling of flying through the bright blue sky and being in complete control. These are the worthy ambitions that make life worth living. This was my why.

All in all, when you’re struggling with finding something to do because you’re bored, ask yourself what is your why? My dad used to say that boredom is a good thing because it means all your basic needs have been met. In no other time in humanity’s history have we had so much discretionary time to do with as we please. Whether you choose to spend it in front the TV or flying a plane for the first time, the choice is yours. Personally, I’ll be out there trying new things because I don’t know what I don’t know. Maybe I could be the greatest curling player in the history of the sport. But I won’t know that unless I try it.