Try Being Bored

by Ben Clayton

People tend to keep busy. We scurry from bed, to the shower, to the office, to happy hour, then dinner, and then that party. When was the last time you were bored?

The last time I was unintentionally bored was when I took a trip to a remote part of Colorado this summer.  I was staying on a nice horse ranch with my good friend Daniel.

Daniel was riding horses that morning and I stayed back in the lodge to read. I got bored of reading, so I took a nap. It was really nice, but weird. Almost otherworldly. The last time I remember being bored like that was when I was a child, and that was a long time ago.

Since then, I attempt (not always successfully) to schedule downtime to be bored. It kind of sounds dumb now that I write it out, but with the ability to consume all kinds of great media at any given moment it is nearly impossible to be bored unless it is intentional in some way.

Boredom allows you the space to let your mind wander. Sometimes it wanders in good directions and other times some scary stuff can happen. Problems can be both created and solved in the same train of thought. I find that beautiful.

Try being bored – it can be terrifyingly fun.

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