Cure Your Boredom

By Caitrin Sneed on June 1, 2015

Boredom is a condition in itself, not a side-effect of un-monumental surroundings. As author Ruth Burke (or Betty Draper from “Mad Men”) said, “Only boring people get bored.”

via Richard Eriksson/Flickr Creative Commons

Case in point, even with beach trips, baseball games and barbeques abound, summer boredom for college students is a commonplace thing. I’m not one to say you shouldn’t do all of the fun activities that normally accompany the summer season.

But if you still find yourself saying, “I’m bored” like it’s your mantra I would suggest looking for a more internal fix to cure your boredom. Free your mind up to new ideas and something as mundane as your summer job can be fascinating.

Here are some ideas on how to stop being boring, and bored.

 Do Something on Your Own

Secrets are interesting and everyone knows it, so have one. You don’t need to do something scandalous to have a secret, but if you are constantly documenting every day of summer via social media or doing everything with another person you will lose your little secrets that make up your mysterious edge.

What if you tried out that new Indian place and didn’t make it an event? Even better, what if you sat in the park for 40 minutes (and didn’t check your phone). When you aren’t under the constant summer pressure to “have fun” or distracted by a conversation your mind can wander, bringing you to some truly interesting ideas and questions.

Some of the best conversations start with someone saying, “you know what random thing I’ve been thinking about …” This conversation starter is impossible if you never really think about anything on your own.

Read a Book That You Wouldn’t Normally

You can have the most interesting conversation in the world every single day but if you have it every single day it won’t be interesting any more. Similarly, books can give you wonderful stories to ponder, ideas to mull over and fantasy worlds to populate in your daydreams, but if you are always reading about the same things won’t that get boring?

Books | © Caitrin Sneed

Read a book that is written by an author with a different life perspective (age, gender, race, time-period, class, nationality). Read a book about romance when you usually read about murder. Read a non-fiction book! Open your mind to new ideas through a book this summer and maybe you’ll notice new things as you walk around in reality.

 Cook

Cooking via Instagram @caitrinkelly

Pizza is predictable. Do something different. Make cooking an art project. Buy your groceries at a farmer’s market. Cook something from scratch. Eat your wonderful creation. Do your dishes the same day. Being involved in every part of the process of nourishing yourself is not only creative but it can help you feel productive. Productivity kills boredom.

Think About Other People

Think about the most boring date you’ve ever been on. Now notice that the person you were on the date with could probably only talk about themselves. Only talking about yourself is really only okay if you are legit the most interesting person in the world. And let’s face it, if you think you are this person, you probably aren’t.

Think about other people, take the focus off of yourself and you might see interesting things about the world that were invisible from your perspective. Other people are a renewable resource of the unknown. Does someone have a birthday coming up, did you steal someone’s shirt that one time and then never give it back? Browse a store but instead of being boring and not liking anything or getting something for yourself, see the store through someone else’s eyes by trying to find the perfect thing for them.

Learn a Skill

Not a boring skill that you are just learning for your resume. Be interesting, learn a skill that you wish you had but you don’t have an immediate use for.

For Example:

Mango via Zantastik (Own work)/Wikimedia Commons

  • how to cut a mango properly
  • how to change a tire
  • how to get stains out of things
  • how to pull off overalls
  • how to play the ukelele
  • how to say, “Do you speak English,” “Where is the bathroom” and “I would like some wine” in multiple languages
  • how to perform CPR
  • how to garden
  • how to tie those knots you were supposed to learn in Boy Scouts but never did
x Happy Summer.

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