A basic guide to developing interests, curiosity, hobbies, and fighting boredom
Have you ever observed how certain individuals seem to be perpetually bored? And have you noticed that bored people tend to be boring? Don’t complain of boredom, but become a more interesting person. How? By developing interests.
Developing Interests Fights Boredom
The most effective strategy to grow into an intriguing person is to have and nurture interests. A boring person has nothing to say because he doesn’t have interests. Nobody with a basic sense of curiosity is in danger of becoming a boring person because a boring person is bored. Worse, the bored are so engrossed with their feeling and idea of being bored that they have given up the opportunity to find the interesting. They give up on life. “I’ve always wanted to learn to paint, but I have no artistic talent,” I’ve heard often enough. “I’d like to play a guitar, but I’m not musically inclined,” is another. “I’d like to do this, but…” is the common refrain of the bored and incurious, a reason that is closer to an excuse. However, this may not be your fault. You may be depressed. Complaints of boredom are the first signs of clinical depression. It signals a giving up of curiosity, of interest in life.
Antidotes to Boredom
A person may simply be tired or fatigued. In that case, a vacation or simply a period of good sleep and/or rest may be enough to stimulate the energy to find life interesting again. Sometimes we do things in the same way over and over again and this can naturally lead us to a feeling of boredom. The answer is simple. Do something different. Maybe doing that same old thing has been done enough. Maybe boredom is a sign that you need to start doing something different. Maybe the vocation you find yourself in is not for you.
Sometimes we simply need a balance to our life. For instance, a person who works in academia, with ideas and theories, may need the balance of working with his body, and the answer can be as simple as taking up tennis or racquetball. The development of a hobby is one of the best ways to feed curiosity and cultivate interests. The reason hobbies can be so good for us is because they provide a way for us to involve ourselves in something that has nothing to do with what we do for a living, or what we do most of the time. It acts as a balance. It is sometimes helpful to force yourself to start doing something that once interested you in order to start doing it again. This is often the block of the artist or the writer. Start with a small project that is easily completed and don’t put a lot of pressure on yourself. Seek inspiration for the energy it gives.
No Excuse for Boredom
Curiosity and the cultivation of interests is the antidote to boredom. The involved with life, the interested person, is never bored; they have no time to be bored. For those, boredom is simply a waste of time. As Bob Dylan says, “Those not busy living are busy dying.” Give up boredom. Get busy and start living.
