These days it’s much harder to get bored. If you’re within reach of a cell phone tower, it’s damn near impossible.
Netflix, Spotify, Instagram, games, new sites… the list goes on an on. It’s far too easy to satiate ourselves with anything we want – and that’s bad… but not for the reasons you normally hear.
Yes, it hurts our attention spans, interrupts normal sleep patterns, and raises stress levels, but if you’re trying to create a business or simply get ahead in life, it can rob you of something even more important, your creativity.
We spend far too little time unplugged with nothing to do, and it’s those moments of boredom that often spark the type of deep thinking that leads to creative breakthroughs.
Having nothing to do leads to something similar to sporadic, impromptu meditation sessions.
Our brains are great at subconsciously solving problems, you just have to give yourself time to listen.
This is one of the main reasons I don’t own any video game systems. It used to be one of my go-to boredom busting activities, but I realized I was a much less productive person when I had it around.
Every one has some distraction they use to fill the time, and those are exactly what they should eliminate.
…It’s a lot easier said that done.
Now that I’ve sold my video games, my phone has taken it’s place, and that’s a much harder temptress to ignore. Unlike video games, my phone has a lot of uses outside of entertainment, so I can’t quite just get rid of it.
Instead I’m just more conscious about how often I’m picking it up for the sole reason of filling an empty void in my day. If I notice I’m doing that, I put it back down and lean into the dull boredom. It’s uncomfortable for a while, but it gets easier.
So what do you want to accomplish? We’re all much smarter than we give ourselves credit for, we just never give ourselves the the time to think.
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