Boredom: The Death Knell of Life…
Life is about living, but yet so many of us are bored. We’re bored of our jobs; we’re bored of our friends, and we’re bored of our spouses. We’re even bored of the newest gadgets we bring home that are supposed to unlock our boredom.
How’s that possible? How is it that in this affluent Western society of ours, where abundance and leisure rule supreme, that so many of us are filled with aimless, guileless boredom? We know not what we want, and we know not what we do. We sit, unabashed; as we observe the few sands of time gifted us burn into an inferno of waste. Boredom: it’s the death knell of life.
German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) wrote that “The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.” If so, then one of these is most certainly avoidable, and it’s not hard to determine which.
Life, no matter what we do, will always bring pain – pain of loss, pain of disease, pain of trial and error. Pain is a part of life, whether we like it or not. But boredom, on the other hand, is not a foregone conclusion. Boredom, and this is the beauty of it, is widely under our control, if we so desire.
Boredom is inaction driven by a lack of appreciation for the amazing world we find ourselves in. Where curiosity is the trait of an active mind, boredom is the trait of an inactive one. Boredom takes life for granted; curiosity embraces it to the fullest. Curiosity drives action; boredom kills it. And when action is killed, the death of happiness is not long in following (see Take Action and Achieve Happiness…).
In a world with endless possibilities, it’s unimaginable that boredom is the anchor that weighs on so many of us. Why? Why do so many of us find ourselves locked into an abyss of mindless servitude, where the days seem like months with no end in sight. Is it lack of goals forged by lack of ambition? Is it simply not caring, not caring what the world brings tomorrow, or the day thereafter? Or is it fear? Fear of the unknown, fear of failure, and fear that the world is watching should we stumble?
Whatever the reason, whatever the driving forces, boredom is to be squashed at its first appearance. To let ourselves be ruled by boredom is to surrender ourselves to an unfulfilled life, a life without purpose, and a life without aim. Fulfillment is a function of achievement, and achievement is a function of action, and action has never been the result of not knowing what to do with one’s time.
Conquer boredom; we conquer life. Boredom conquers; life conquers us. Which will it be? The choice is ours and ours alone. Thank goodness…
For more, check out The C.A.T. Principle: Change, Action, Trust – Words to Live By, a Global Ebook Awards GOLD Winner for Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook of 2014, available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. See the latest Amazon reviews here. Now revised and expanded, and once again nominated for the Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook of the 2015 Global Ebook Awards!
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A 2014 Global Ebook Awards GOLD Winner for Best Non-fiction Self-help Ebook.
2015 Global Ebook Awards Nominee for Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook