Welcome to the Stop Sabotaging Your Success Podcast, episode ninety-four. I’m your host, Cindy Esliger. This is the podcast focusing on what we can do today to take control of our careers and overcome the inevitable barriers to success that we encounter along the way. 

Boredom is often viewed as a negative emotion that people try to avoid or overcome. However, recent research suggests that boredom can have some surprising benefits, particularly in terms of creativity and your ability to solve problems. In a challenging work environment, experiencing moments of boredom can be a catalyst for personal and professional growth. 

In this episode, we’ll look at what causes boredom, what types of problems and perks it can lead to, plus the best ways to handle it when it arises. 

Boredom is defined as the state of lacking enthusiasm, passion, or interest. It’s a common experience that most people encounter at some point in their lives. It’s often associated with feelings of restlessness, dissatisfaction, and a lack of engagement with the environment. However, boredom can also provide an opportunity to engage in creative thinking and problem solving. When we experience boredom, our minds are freed from external stimuli and we are more likely to engage in daydreaming as we let our minds wander.

Boredom can help us become more creative by allowing us to explore different perspectives and generate new ideas. When we are bored, we are more likely to engage in divergent thinking, which involves generating multiple solutions to a problem. This type of thinking is important for creativity because it allows us to see problems from different angles and come up with unique solutions. 

In addition to enhancing creativity and problem-solving skills, boredom can create a reason to pursue personal and professional growth. When we are bored, we have an opportunity to reflect on our lives and consider making changes that will help us achieve our goals. For example, if we are bored with our job, we may use that boredom as a cue to explore new career options or develop new skills. Similarly, if we are bored with our personal life, we may use that boredom as a cue to try new hobbies or engage in new activities that will bring us fulfillment outside of work. By embracing boredom and using it as a cue to engage in creative activities and reflect on our lives, we can become more productive and fulfilled. 

However, it is worth noting that not all types of boredom are beneficial. For example, chronic boredom, which is characterized by a lack of interest in daily activities, can lead to negative outcomes such as anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. Therefore, it’s important to distinguish between beneficial and harmful forms of boredom and develop better strategies to cope. 

Boredom is a state of mind characterized by feelings of restlessness, frustration, and disengagement where we can’t seem to focus on a task. It’s also commonly described as brain fog. It can arise when we feel unchallenged, uninterested, or lacking in purpose or direction. Boredom can be experienced in various situations including when we are performing routine tasks, waiting for something to happen, or when we have a lack of stimulation or novelty in our lives. 

While boredom is often viewed negatively, it can be an important and valuable experience. We rarely feel bored when we’re focused on a demanding task or while taking part in good conversation. 

Embracing boredom can help us develop a greater sense of self-awareness in what is working for us and what isn’t. When we are bored, we have the chance to reflect on our thoughts, feelings, and actions, and gain insight into our personal strengths and weaknesses. This self-awareness can help us identify areas for growth and development and to set new goals and priorities for our lives.

In a challenging work environment, boredom can be especially valuable. When we are faced with difficult tasks or high pressure situations, taking a break and allowing our minds to wander to something else, for even a few moments, can provide a much needed reprieve from the stress and anxiety. It can also help us return to our work with renewed focus and energy, and to approach our challenges with a fresh perspective.

Embracing boredom can help us to develop resilience and coping skills. When we are able to sit with the feelings of discomfort and restlessness, we become better equipped to handle difficult situations and to persevere through challenging times. This can help us to build greater confidence and a stronger sense of self-efficacy, which can have a positive impact on all areas of our lives. 

Boredom can make us feel dissatisfied where time just seems to drag on and on. We tend to seek ways to entertain ourselves as a way to escape that feeling. In today’s world, there are so many options at our fingertips to help alleviate our boredom and yet, nothing seems to do the job. We can spend hours distracting ourselves, but sometimes it just seems to make it worse. 

We don’t want to experience too much boredom or too little. It’s important to reframe boredom since it isn’t necessarily a bad thing and we don’t always have to get away from it. 

Many of us developed the skills needed to deal with boredom while we were young, and these skills continue to serve us well in adulthood. For the moments when you have a lull in your day, you could proactively create a list of activities you enjoy, starting with things you’ve enjoyed doing in the past and expanding into new things you’re interested in trying. By doing this work in advance, you can break the cycle of defaulting to the easiest external distraction, which is probably that phone in your pocket, when you have time to fill. 

Boredom is commonly associated with feeling stuck or unfulfilled, but it can be a motivator as well. It can be an opportunity for reflection and also spur you into action to make change. Sometimes, we need that quiet time to figure out what matters most to us and then look for activities that can give expression to who we are and satisfy our intellectual curiosities. An unoccupied mind generated from boredom can be the blank slate we need to inspire us. 

Sometimes, we just need to get up and walk around to give our bodies a break. The same thing happens with our minds. We tend to be overloaded with information and distraction, and this constant stimulation can lead to fatigue. Taking a break can be a valuable opportunity to help our brains relax and alleviate stress. Many people come up with great solutions to problems when their mind is free to wander while their body is otherwise engaged in a mindless task. Think of all those great ideas you get in the shower. This allows us to think through something almost effortlessly and solve those problems that have been swirling around in the back of our minds. 

There are many ways that people can use boredom to their advantage, so here are five benefits of being bored: 

1. Sparks creativity: Engaging in boring tasks encourages your mind to wander and, without external stimuli, we tend to use our imagination in different ways. 
2. Motivates a search for novelty: Having the self-awareness that you’re dissatisfied with the status quo encourages you to seek out new experiences which can open your mind and change up your routine. 
3. Encourages the pursuit of new goals: Being bored can be the emotional signal that we’re not doing what we want to be doing, or that it’s not meeting our expectations, so it might be time to reconsider your objectives and find something more meaningful to pursue. 
4. Increases engagement: It may seem counterintuitive, but we can stay more engaged in performing a monotonous task when we’re focused on thinking about something else entirely. 
5. Fosters a deep connection: Boredom enhances our social awareness, helping us better understand the motivations and desires of others, enabling us to meet their expectations and enhance our style of communication. 

So, maybe it’s time to embrace boredom and overcome the uncomfortable feelings it brings up for us. Here are five steps for how to do that: 

1. Check in with yourself: Boredom affects everyone differently, but giving ourselves more of the time and space needed to think creatively can lead to more productivity and in turn, increase our job satisfaction. 
2. Balance activities with rest: When we’re always on the go, we’re not giving ourselves the time to rest, which allows our minds to relax, reflect, and form new connections. 
3. Engage more: We need to unplug by putting down the phone and closing the laptop in order to truly get a moment to ourselves and allow ourselves to engage with the people and the world around us.
4. Improve your focus: There’s a common misconception that taking breaks at work is bad because it’s perceived as laziness, but it can actually help increase our productivity levels by improving our focus on the task at hand. 
5. Get out of your comfort zone: Welcome a beginner’s mindset by abandoning preconceived notions and trying something you’ve never done before and appreciate the wonder in new experiences.

Experiencing boredom can be what allows ourselves to experiment with something new and might just open us up to a world of possibilities. Choose to see the upside of boredom and harness its power for good. Sometimes, boredom is the breather we need to take that step back and determine where we’re headed next. 

Frequent and prolonged episodes of boredom can lead to some negative consequences. It’s not a place where you want to languish, but embracing it every once in a while can be a good thing. If you’re consistently bored at work, it could be a warning sign that you need to make some big changes and perhaps look at pursuing a new career path. 

By embracing boredom and using it as the encouragement you need to explore new experiences, collaborate with others, and embrace curiosity, you can enhance your creativity and problem-solving skills. This might be just what you need to stay motivated, engaged, and inspired even during those times when you’re most frustrated with how your projects are going and the people around you. 

When we’re bored, we lack enthusiasm or interest in what we’re doing. We might be doing something that doesn’t hold our attention or doesn’t seem to have a real purpose, or maybe we’re doing nothing at all. 

Too much boredom can cause restlessness, anxiety, and contribute to depression, while too little boredom leaves us without enough time to rest, reflect, and be imaginative. Being bored occasionally is not something we should fear. A little boredom has the power to motivate us to try new things. When we are bored, reflecting on our own thoughts and feelings can help us better understand what’s going on for others. This enhanced sense of empathy and compassion can lead to better communication and collaboration with others, which can, in turn, lead to strengthening professional relationships that are so important for career success. 

By taking the time to reflect on what we’re thinking and feeling during the occasional bout of boredom, we can gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and others. Sometimes, we need to trust ourselves enough to be comfortable with our own thoughts and learn to enjoy our own company.

And that’s it for this episode of Stop Sabotaging Your Success. Remember to download your Guide to Using Boredom as a Catalyst For Growth at cindyesliger.com/podcast, episode ninety-four.

Thank you to our producer, Alex Hochhausen and everyone at Astronomic Audio. Get in touch, I’m on Instagram @cindyesliger and my email address is info@cindyesliger.com.

If you enjoy listening to this podcast, you have to come check out The Confidence Collective. It’s my monthly coaching program where we dig a little deeper into what’s holding you back in your career, and we find the workarounds. We help you overcome the barriers and create the career you want. Join me over at cindyesliger.com/join. I’d love to have you join me in The Confidence Collective. 

Until next week, I’m Cindy Esliger. Thanks for listening.