Tag: boredom

The Ultimate Cure For Boredom.

Do you ever feel bored?

I never do.

Because the foolproof cure for boredom is to have big goals.

And I am the fool with the proof.

Big goals, and many of them, help fill your days with purpose.

I have so many goals that they govern my days. (In a non-political governing kind of way.)

From the moment I wake up, my routine is constructed to help me achieve my goals.

Because when you have a strong vision for your future, it shapes your now.

And you see time as a tool for you to use to achieve your goals.

Fitness goals inspire you to exercise. Even when you would rather TexMexercise.

Travel goals squash boredom with planning, adventure, reflection and memories.

Career goals inspire you to work harder, more focused, and with more zeal. (Or a more contemporary word for zeal.)

Financial goals drive you to save and invest. Even when you have the urge to splurge, Virg.

And your financial goals will inspire you to explore and discover smarter things to do with your money, honey.

Entrepreneurial goals mean you are never bored. Ever. Like ever, ever.

Reading goals mean that you always have a good reason to log off of electronics and fill your time with something that adds value to your life. (And increases your vocabularium.)

Writing goals drive you to sit down and write every day. And it is hard to be bored when you are creating. Just ask God. Or Tyler Perry.

Domestic goals around improving your home, and yard keep you busy and productive. Not bored.

Relationship goals influence the way you invest your time, the way you treat the important people in your life, and the hashtags you use on social media.

Your goals help you make decisions all day long about the things you should and shouldn’t do with your time. Which means that goals enhance productivity, decision making, time management, and relationships. Not to mention the positive impact they have on your happiness, adventurousness, and good old-fashioned usefulness. (Basically all the nesses.)

Key Takeaway

The next time you find yourself bored, think about the goals that you could be working towards. If you find that you don’t have any, set new ones that you can work towards right now. Boredom is a signal that you need more meaningful activity in your life. And goals are the greatest way to make that happen.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned, check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media. And consider subscribing to Adam’s Good Newsletter.

Why you are less creative today, and what to do about it tomorrow.

The Torrance Test is like the IQ test, but for creativity. New research on the Torrance creativity scores by researchers at the University of William and Mary show that U.S. Torrance creativity scores have been dropping steadily since the ‘90s. (The decade not the age.)

One of the main reasons for our decrease in creativity is that we are no longer doing one of the most important things you need to do to think creatively. It is not creating Shrinky Dinks, wearing acid wash jeans, or rocking a mullet.

We no longer simply sit and think.

We don’t allow ourselves to be quiet and un-entertained. Today, we have cured ourselves of boring moments with our arsenal of digital devices, televisions, and computers. As long as you have electrical power you have something to do to fill your empty time.

But the ubiquitous digitization of our planet has a devastating effect on our creativity. It is like the burning of the South American rainforests. Or the melting of the polar ice caps. Except what we are losing isn’t trees or ice. It is our creative thinking and innovation.

So how do we solve this?

We need to be bored.

We need to stop entertaining ourselves at all times.

We need to turn our digitals off regularly.

We need to lie quietly in bed at the start and end of the day.

We need to turn our idea generators on and let them run uninterrupted for long stretches.

We need to reprogram ourselves to use these incredible digital machines as tools for creativity rather than time killers, entertainment crutches, and boredom erasers.

Creativity Tip: While you are waiting you should be creating.

Employers need to adjust expectations too. If you expect your employees to respond to emails, calls, texts and slacks quickly, you are programming them to check their digitals often. And that leads to the type of check-in habit that eliminates room to think. Instead, we should slow down our response expectations. And put a premium on regular stretches of total focus on creation, problem-solving, and strategic thinking.

Key Takeaway

The longer you spend thinking the closer you get to great ideas. Make sure you spend the time you need to get all the way there. Long, uninterrupted stretches of thinking are where the gold is. So go there. Get yours. You’ll find your quiet time pays off in many valuable ways.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

Do you know that your smart phone is robbing you every day?

Digital devices are amazing. They enable you to find the answer to virtually any question, any time. They help you fill in knowledge gaps like grout. Or mortar. Or caulk.

So we end up filling our free time by answering questions: What is the weather like tomorrow? Tap. What’s the balance in my bank account? Tap. What is Debbie doing? Tap. Is she still in Dallas? Tap. What was Gregory Hines famous for? Tap. What do you call water from the faucet? Tap.

The Dark Side

But these omnipresent digital devices have a significant downside too. They are depleting one of our most valuable resources: our free time. That precious time when we can let our minds wander in empty space. The time we can use to imagine exciting new ideas is disappearing at an alarming rate. In fact, the planet is losing free time faster than we are losing rain forest (acutally I just imagined that fact in my free time).

If we are not careful we will squander our most fertile time to invent, improve and inspire. That time lost can never be recovered. Not even with LoJack.

The world needs more great ideas. So do businesses, communities, schools and households. Great ideas are born in the quiet spaces in between. Those spaces that are now being filled in with screen time.

Key Takeaway

Starting today, take back some of your thinking time. While you are waiting for something to start, or something to end, or someone to show up, keep your smart phone in your pocket or purse. Instead, let your mind go wherever it wants. If you give it enough time it is sure to arrive somewhere exciting and new. Once it does, pull out your phone and tell me all about it.

*If you know someone who could benefit from more free time and less screen time, please consider sharing this post.