The Cure for Boredom

I'm bored.  That was the cry of little kids and now many of those kids have grown and are still bored.

 

It's a tough old row to hoe except that the problem, they never learned the joy of row hoeing.

 

Boredom is easy to cure.  No one EVER has to be bored. 

 

Here's how to avoid and conquer boredom once and for all:

 

Concentrate not on the end goal but on the next step.  Many people get frustrated and then bored because they see the big picture and never successfully see the next step.  It's like picking rocks out of a big field.  If you look at all the rocks and the big field ahead you will become frustrated and eventually give up out of boredom of the task ahead. 

 

The key to overcoming this part of it is focus on just the next rock.  Then the one after that.  Don't imagine or vision the field as being done.  Vision it as better.  One rock at a time.  Keep going, don't give up and at some point you may actually have all the rocks out of the field.

 

Pay detailed attention to what you are doing.  Focus on the next step carefully.  Do it intentionally.  If you are weeding a garden, pull one single blade of grass at a time.  Relish it, take your time, slow down, think about what you are doing.  Do it slowly.  Weed at half speed.  This intentional slowness will help create the mental ability to displace boredom with attention.  People who multitask and try to do 3 things at once burn out and are bored.  Our IPOD Video game cell phone generation aggravates boredom.

 

If you take the most mundane potentially boring task and break it into very small deliberate steps and do those slowly you will find your boredom overcome.  Relish the moment.  Breath the air around you. Sense all the sensations of the thing you are doing. Think of the joy of this single act  Don't think about anything else.  Focus carefully.

 

After just a little while of this focus you will automatically speed up again, your mind will wander, you will find the activity you are engaged in rewarding and you will accomplish your task no matter how monumental without boredom.

 

I have learned this discipline and thought I would pass it along.