Archive for May, 2009
May 21st, read an entire book in my first 2 hours of consciousness. The book was called “Go Giver,” and it was pretty interesting. I then got to working more on my sport psychology eBook. As the sun came up and the caffeine took hold, I became more and more alert (I have limited myself to coffee once every two days).
I in the green zone, I was tremendously in my own head about doing genuinely productive or fulfilling activity. A few hours later I began writing specifically what I felt was creative at the time – instead of honing in on things I wasn’t as concerned with (ultimately, having the best creative work on my part gives me the best insight, and you the best content).
In the night I went out but I wasn’t in the best state for socializing and I may have been too tired to push it. I find ways to constantly drive for activity in all other contexts, why should this one be any different?
May 22nd. Let it be known that about 8:30PM on May 21st I felt like I needed to go to bed. Going out and socializing really made a difference in bringing my energy up.
After 4 hours of sleep I POP out of bed, excited for the day – the sun is up and that seemed to signify to some part of my mind that I had actually gotten sleep. I went for a job immediately.
The orange zone above involved having a tremendous time with friends. Later in the night I didn’t feel in peak social state again. In addition, we waited around for a party that never happened, wishy-washy plans galore. Makes me want to plan my own social events even more.
May 24th, woke up and went right to reading. I feel like this usually keeps me in a tired mode, and that its sometimes best to walk around and do my morning routine / listen to music to wake up.
Around eleven I caught up with my good friend to talk about our summer entrepreneurial project. Making plans and laying out action steps is always so much fun, especially with friends. ITs something to get excited about, to build, to have fun with. Having a friend to share that with tends to magnify the creativity and fun of the experience.
Before the night came I ended up doing some woodwork with my father. Carpentry and furniture design is something he’s been involved in for the better part of his life – so I decided to start a small project of my own with him.
Realization:
-As this point, my body wakes up with the sun and assumed a good nights rest. This is because I’ve been going to bed so early and waking up at 4-something or 5-something when the sun is still down. Its interesting now how I FEEL rested when I awake just because some part of me associates the sun with adequate rest.
-It is not only what I accomplish during my day, but who I am as a person. Do I exemplify my virtues? Do I make the most of my scenarios? Do I find ways to bring fun and challenge into my life?
This is actually something I’ve been planning on doing for quite a while now, and since my Productivity Heat Mapping life experiment is over, I have resources to hone in on a new, interesting, fulfilling facet of life: Connection.
Given my recent inner involvement with the people I am closest to, I am surprised to find that in my understanding of the fulfillment and living an engaged life, I have yet to focus specifically on relationships.
Given this new experiment, I’m going to be spending less time writing and far more time hitting the gym with friends, organizing summer social events, doing karaoke, hitting the bars, and generally involving myself with the bonds I have forged and would like to forge.
Understanding social dynamics and “best practices” for having fulfilling relationships with others is going to now be the majority of my focus for the entire months of June and July.
At least 50% of my work will be related to friendship, and I will periodically post specifically about my experiences and understandings here in this post (in addition to the other articles I write).
May 18th, the seventh day of productivity heat mapping. I do some writing and then deliver flyers to some houses with my friend. Advertising for my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu academy is definitely worthwhile for me – but doing it with my friend made it 10 times as much fun. Increased state and increased productivity yielded a level 3 spike.
I felt a little off while teaching Jiu Jitu in the eventing, but filming technique afterwards was a lot of fun as always. I become overwhelmingly tired and passed right out at 10:00PM.
May 19th, way too much sleep! I’m starting to feel as though my body is crying out to me, but to be honest working off of 4-5 hours hasn’t been an issue for me, I’m still eager to keep up with that habit.
I had an idea to listen to fun music in the early morning while I do my regular routine of brushing teeth and eating. I can even do this while checking emails (basically, I can bump some awesome tunes whenever I don’t need to fully engage intellectually – as in writing or reading).
I felt very much in the busywork level 2 phase. I realize that I must change my focus or change my routine because I seem to be in a relatively stressed state and not an ideally creative state. I realize the origin of this state but I find it tough to shift from sometimes.
In the evening I hung with my good friend and we talked about a new project for social involvement, we’re calling it the Summer FunBoys (yep, FunBoys is one word… the site and the idea are new, but check out www.summerfunboys.tk). Its a group for organizing social events, organizing community service events, and spreading fun in our town.
Teaching BJJ went well, too, afterwards I visited some friends at a nice sushi place before heading home.
May 20th, awesome morning. I went out and did an “hour of power” (an idea I picked up from Anthony Robbins) – where I got in a nice morning jog and combined it with a focus of what I was excited about / appreciateive of. This really got me amped.
During the running and writing for my eBook, I had flashes of 100% “on-ness” where I just felt ON completely. Totally aligned with my present action, totally merging my action and awareness into one.
I felt quite tired around 3:00PM while writing, and I think its because I’ve come to associate my room with slumber. Even though I’m in my chair writing, I’m in the environment in which I sleep at night – and I feel that this makes me feel tired though I don’t need sleep. I moved my compute to the dining room, which has more windows anyways.
I then went to a different branch of my bank and totally became friends with all the bank ladies at once, it was crazy. We just started bantering and joking and holding up the line it was hilarious.
After feeling disengaged while teaching Jiu Jitsu, I went home, did some work on my projects and passed out. Again… like a freekin’ brick.
Realization:
I think I’m selling myself short in placing most of my expereinces with friends in the yellow zone. Cultivating great relationships is definitely one of my highest ends. Being engaged and enjoying myself with friends is “productive” in the sense of alignment with my highest ends – though it might not always “produce” in terms of money made or articles written. Friendship is something I’m planning on studying a lot more on my own.
I’ve also come to the realization about my experience of tension the purpose of this website: to offer quality content. Hence, when I find myself trying to hammer something out I’ve got to slow down. Getting hits and making money are lower on the totem pole than my own creative expression and harvesting of good ideas and experiences – which translates to the best content for readers!
May 15th, I wake up an immediately get to doing some writing and website design work. I feel so much more stressed than anything else – which isn’t usual for me. However, given my recent project list and my lack of sleep for the sake of accomplishing more things, I might be in an adjustment phase.
I nearly complete part of a website, and that makes me feel better. For some odd reason, completion comes with a sense of relief and pleasure. Ideally Iw ould be able to experience those feelings whenever I chose to, but it seems like when I “get things done” I feel some sort of pleasure – probably because I value accomplishment towards my highest aims, or even getting things off my project list.
I had very little focus throughout the day though I was getting things done. I felt in my head. Later in the afternoon I got together with friends to deliver flyers and go to the gym. Even this basic amount of human contact rejouvenated me, I’d been inside writing and working on the web all day – its always feels as though I draw from my fun interactions with people I care about.
So tired by the time the night comes…. so tired. Too a nap, woke up to read… passed right out.
May 16th. Whoooaaaa forgot to set the alarm properly! Nearly 8 hours of sleep when I include the nap before bed on the 15th. Craziness! I snap right up to get some projects going before I do 3 hours worth of lawn mowing.
Around 2:00PM (where you see the orange level 3s) I had an awesome idea for an eBook that I now plan on writing! I will be writing a 30+ page eBook on applying the ideas of sport psychology to everyday life. It relates to my two greatest areas of study (kinesiology and psychology). I got pumped on it and started tearing into it. I also started another philosophical inquiry – both of which I worked on for the sake of diving into the ideas and learning / enjoying. This brought my state right up.
Late at night I also decide to push myself, I really wanted to get that orange zone back. I turned up the urgency, but in a way that let me feel the eager RUSH and not the stress. Developing this kind of state control is something I want to work more with.
May 17th, got less than 3 hours of sleep because I overslept the night before. My 2nd hour of consciousness I hit the orange zone because I was not only writing something I wanted to write – but I was coming close to completion (which as I said before seems to have a value more so to my subconscious than my conscious mind).
A few hours after that, I began being bothered by some thoughts of “is this actually benefitting you?” I dropped the writing and got into a bit of speed reading because it felt like learning and growth. I’m all about doing the “busywork” in the spirit of excellence when it needs to be done (we’re always going to bump into relatively growth-less activity, its my mission to draw from it what I can and enjoy it when its the best given task to tackle), but I wanted something different.
In the night I eat with my family and then go to visit a friend who lives near the beach. Fun time, but as soon as I got home the tiredness hit me like a ton of bricks. When I am out socializing it seems as though the fatigue doesn’t set in, but once I’m alone, or sitting, or especially slouching or lying, I’m OUT like a light.
Realization:
I keep myself riding on level 2 (yellow) the vast majority of the time, and I realize why this is. First, when I’m by myself I am always engaged in productive activity. I shower fast, I read and write for my projects, I design sites, etc… When I’m with my friends, I may not be accomplishing as much (though we do “productive” things like go to the gym or talk about entrepreneurial projects), but I usually feel a lot better being around them. I value and enjoy the time I spend with them. Hence, wether I’m alone or with friends I find myself mostly around level 2.
May 11th, day one of the productivity heat mapping experiment.
It started off in a bit of shock, I got nearly 6 hours of sleep because I neglected to set my alarm properly (PM instead of AM). I usually aim for 4 to 5 hours max – its part of a different Life Experiment.
This was an amazing day for me, energetically. I felt in flow almost the entire day, and the “productive sensation” was on – I was outside my head, focused not only on what I was doing but on how cool it all was!
My level 4 periods weren’t even for my own projects, they were while I was delivering carpet for my father’s business. Even though I know thats not going to be my life path, I was pumped to do it because I knew it was what was best in that moment, and that in the evening I’d be writing and reading furiously!
I was listening to David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” in the car and voice recording key points to my cell phone. That evening I wrote down all these key points in a new word document.
May 12th, the second day of experimentation.
This time I got a bit over two hours of sleep. I knew that I got a bunch the night before (on my terms, anyway), and I wanted to see hwo well I could roll on two hours.
I realize while teaching Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class that I feel more engaged and productive when I am teaching relatively new material or unique concepts. If it interests me more, or if I can learn from it, I feel more “on.”
In the night I talked to my friends about something we’re doing this summer called the Summer FunBoys, a group we made up for fun to serve and engage the community in fun ways. It was an awesome conversation. At the time, I think I did this time a disservice by calling it a 2 (yellow), it was an awesome talk.
I notice something on this night (something that continues since the inclusion of my “Sleep Less” Life Experiment). Each night I aim to recap 3 great things that happened during that day. Lately when I hit the bed, I’m out like a light every single time, and I’m unable to savor those little magic moments.
May 13th, still a pretty phenomenally productive day despite my accumulated 6 hours of sleep total in the last 48 hours.
I woke up with no initial big BLAST to accomplish, I had no immediate goals in mind though my project list was as full as ever – I just didn’t set anything juicy for myself in the morning.
While doing some writing in the green (1) zone, and in the yellow (2) and orange (3) zones, I realize that my higher productivity / emotional state times are when I am focused specifically on how AWESOME it will be to complete these goals, and the grand vision I have – in addition to building something interesting in the present.
Recently I’ve embarked on a Life Experiment to read 1000 words per minute by the end of June 2009. This has given me the impetus to study speed reading thoroughly, and to practice my reading skills often.
There are a few ideas and tips on speed reading that have had a MASSIVE impact on my ability to read swiftly and retain good levels of comprehension, and thats what I’m going to bring to the forefront today.
Though I’ve seen a lot of techniques and tips out there, here are the 5 that I’ve found most helpful (I’ve recently gone from about 250 to 750 word per minute):
- Expanding you peripheral vision - Nothing new to speed readers, but the idea is critical: if our vision is wider, we are able to take in more information per eye movement. Our eyes snap to another spot on the page about once every 1/4 seconds. Though 4 words per second might seem quick, it only amounts to 240 words per minute. If we can take in big chunks of a line at a time, it will not only allow us to take in far more information, but it will FORCE us out of the habit of reading word for word in our head, or mouthing the words (a dreaded habit!). Increasing our peripheral vision also means we do not have to read to the side of the page – we can let our peripherals pick up the end of each line and the biginning of each line.
- Chunking and looking at big words - This probably helped me out more than anything else in terms of technique. Its important to be able to identify where your eyes will ‘blip’ to next – by separating the line into digestible chunks and/or by focusing on the large words. I do a bit of both. Once you get used to it, you become more and more capable of finding rhythm on any page, and your eyes skip masterfully from “chunk” to “chunk.” This rhythme is what eventually develops into a natural flow across lines and down pages.
- Record what you remember - To increase comprehension, it helps to recall the main points of what you’ve read on paper. Directly after speed reading, pick up a pencil and jot down the main points of what you’ve just read and all the details you can remember. This will give you an idea of your comprehension – which you can track over time to gauge your improvements.
- Set up a proper reading environment – This helps big time. Especially when speed reading, I’ve found it very important to keep your back strait, to sit upright at a desk or table, and to have enough elbow room to read comfortably. I’ve found that slouching and laying down put me to sleep when I read – and sitting up strait puts me in “student mode.” Reading faster definitely requires alertness.
- Breaking from comfort zones - This is the underlying driver of my increased speed, hands down. Speed reading to me is about constantly challenging yourself to APPLY everything that you learn. This involves reading at far greater speed than you are comfortable with. This forces your mind to adjust and catch up in comprehension. Below I include one exercise I use to increase this skill.
Pushing your comfort zones exercise:
This is something that I’m sure I didn’t invent, but I’ve never seen anywhere else. Get a good book, and determine about how many pages per line the book has. Then count down in rows until you reach the number of words you strive to read in a minute (make sure its well over your usual capacity). Get out a timer (most cell phones have one) and see if you can read the entire segment you identified in a minute flat.
For me this is about 900 words per minute. For example, if a book has about 11 words per line, I read about 82 lines per minute. You might not always have an ideal amount of comprehension at first, but with time be reading the same pages and different pages you will find that you brain is forced to “keep up” with your eye-rhythm. timing yourself over and over you’ll notice jumps in comprehension and reading speed.
Experiment with these ideas on your own – and I encourage you to check out some resources for speed reading. Different resources include different tips and techniques, some of which work better for some people than for others. I, for example, do not like to use a “pacer” when I read swiftly (using your hand or an index card to guide your eyes while reading). You might really like pacers as a tool.
___
If you enjoyed this post and the material on this site, consider signing up for my RSS feed or bumping this material only StumbleUpon or Digg. Thanks a lot!
Continuing our application of positive psychology to the study of time, let us now turn to the future.
Like the past, the future has the capacity to occupy the majority of our conscious space. Daydreaming, worrying, and wishing might be said to be too prevalent in the minds of today. However, the ideas we have of the future might also serve a more beneficial purpose.
The Future:
Practical Purpose:
It is no surprise that our ideas on the future serve an integral part in our daily activity. For instance, I only go to school because I believe that when I get there I will learn valuable information. I only read a certain book because I have a compelling vision of my own future that involves ideas that I hope to find in this book. I only put milk in my cereal because I think it will taste better than orange juice (most of the time).
Here we see the logistical purpose of the imagined future – we use it to anticipate the results of our actions and the experiences we will have. This information is useful for planning, but it is also useful for more mundane actions like those listed above.
Beyond a Practical Purpose:
What else could we possibly use the future for? We cannot experience “future happiness,” only happiness in the present. Why not simply make our plans and return to the NOW?
This might be a good way to deal with the imagined future, but what if our imagined future could serve to heighten our positive emotions in the present, and also compel us towards a future we dream about?
One mindset we may want to cultivate is optimism. Optimism implies a positive outlook about the future and its possibilities. For instance, when leaving late to go to an event, we might have self-talk that brings about anxiety, or self-talk that keeps us in good spirits.
“Oh no, I won’t make it on time now! I was late last time, too… my friends might not forgive me!” might bring about a state of panic, and certainly won’t help the situation.
“Alright, lets see if we can make it in time, I’m sure my friends won’t take this personally.” might bring about a more calm state. It could be argued that having this mind frame also wouldn’t directly benefit the situation either.
I would disagree, I believe that optimism generally does help the situation in this case and in most similar cases.
First and foremost, if nothing else, we experience calm in the present moment instead of pain and anxiety.
Second, irrational anxiety might compel us to irrational behavior – such as speeding profusely – which could certainly be dangerous.
In addition, we can take into account our effect upon others. If we emanate anxiety in our house before rushing out the door, whoever we interact will feel that. If we arrive late and apologize in distress because we believe we may loose our friends’ approval, this can be felt as well.
So who is benefiting from pessimism?
Another useful future-related skill to cultivate might be visualization. We might argue that visualization in and of itself neutral. Certainly some people visualize in detrimental ways (related to pessimism) while others visualize ways that motivate and inspire them.
The latter is what I refer to here – though it ties in with many other psychology ideas and concepts.
The power and efficacy of visualizing positive and desirable outcomes has been popularized by Olympic athletes and movies like “The Secret.” The very basic premise is this:
Your mind will bring itself towards what you focus upon.
you focus on victory, you’re mind will try to find ways to attain it. You focus on food, your mouth will water and your stomach might ache. You focus on a compelling and innovative book, your brain will mobilize to help you write it. But if you focus on fear, you will only get more of it.
This should be nothing new to most people even remotely acquainted with self development. However, it does seem to fly in the face (to a degree) with the idea that remaining “present” is the ideal outside of logistical purposes.
Lets be Realistic:
Optimism must be used with common sense, and the same goes for visualization. Obviously simply visualizing a new career or home and being optimistic about its arrival is not enough to bring those dreams into reality.
Optimism does have the potential to have detrimental effects on our lives, but only if it is used in blatant disregard of reality. Being optimistic about spending all your money because you believe you’ll win the lottery isn’t likely to be an ideal path to wealth.
Like the past, I think : “If our minds need to occasionally go there anyway, why not make it an enriching experience that empowers us in the present?…”
___
If you enjoyed this post and the material on this site, consider signing up for my RSS feed or bumping this material only StumbleUpon or Digg. Thanks a lot!
In the self-development community, “positive self talk” is always emphasized. It’s recognized as essential. It’s “101″ stuff, you’ve gotta know it.
We strive to find the good in situations, to focus on the good within people and give them the benefit of the doubt, we focus on our strengths and on the positive aspects of our lives.
I agree wholeheartedly that these adaptive (healthy, growth-oriented) mind-frames are important in feeling as good as we can, seeing opportunities in front of us, and making the most of them confidently.
What if we cursed and yelled every time someone did something that we deemed to be counter-productive in terms of our own goals? If this was the case, most of the people we care about most dearly would be victims of our angry wrath.
What if each time our plans were thwarted, we focused exclusively on that one challenge – labeled it a “problem” – and felt terrible about it? If we followed this method, we’d be feeling so bad we’d never want to set plans or projects ever again.
The virtue of “positive self talk” is integrally related to taking the “empowering perspective.” This involves taking control of the meaning of situations – and so taking control of our feelings, our internal resources involved, and our behaviors related to the event. We can interpret a situation a million and a half ways – we aught to aim to take the facts into account and frame them in a way that will excite us and bring about acceptance, excitement, or empowered action, rather than anger, sorrow, or boredom.
However, there comes a point where this “empowered perspective” starts to get skewed, and the facts – as they might be understood in a reasonable light – become twisted to merge with our positive, empowered mind-frame.
_________
For instance, someone might tell themselves that on their way to work, all the lights that they see will be green – thus facilitating their timely arrival for work.
Already this kind of bold optimism seems to go against what might reasonably be determined to be the “facts” of street lights: they do not pick and choose who they want to let pass at what times.
This same person driving to work might hit a red light, and then promptly tell themselves that this red light is truly what is best, because it is timing them to hit only green lights from here on out.
Again this belief seems bold. This goes beyond the empowering perspective. In the empowering perspective, one might simply tell oneself “well, I’m at a red light. This isn’t “bad” unless I think it is. If I’m a little late for work then I’ll learn from this and leave earlier next time. As for now, there’s nothing I can do about this red light, I can’t change it with telekinesis, so I’ll accept it and enjoy this fun song on the radio.”
This perspective seems to actually assert that whatever is happening is happening IN LINE with one’s own betterment, with one’s own objectives.
__________
This belief might be fun to tinker around with when it involves issues of stop lights, but what about tragic events?
Many times, the same view is taken. People who loose and eye, or a leg, or two legs, or even a CHILD often express how the event had a meaning, how it was actually BEST for their own benefit (be it connection with God, personal growth, understanding of fulfillment, appreciation of life, etc…).
The belief that the entire universe acts in line with what is truly best for our betterment does not seem logical. Are you the only conscious being whose desires are being met by the entire universe? If that is the case, how can we both believe it?! Also, if the universe works continuously to fulfill our desires, why must we work for them, why must we experience struggle, why aren’t we perpetually in a state of infinite bliss?
Here’s the thing, though. Having this belief doesn’t seem to have any blatantly negative consequences other than sounding like you’re from California. It only brings us to truly believe in the meanings we assign to things, and it may also give us a sense of confidence in the universe itself when we believe that it works with us. This one belief can keep us in an almost permanent place of empowering perspective.
As someone in the personal development field, I see this issue as almost a dilemma in terms of our self development path. do we take on this belief and see what it can do for us, or do we aim to see things objectively (whether or not that involves a belief that the universe is always following our will) and take an empowering perspective on it.
For now, do some internal exploring. Take these thoughts and decide for yourself.
___
If you enjoyed this post and the material on this site, consider signing up for my RSS feed or bumping this material only StumbleUpon or Digg. Thanks a lot!
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
I’m going to lay it out right here in the beginning of the post. This is the money content: boredom is a mindset. With a slight adjustment in your tolerance for boredom, with a vision of what does engage you and what you value, and with a few simple preventative measures and habits, anyone can kick the boredom curse.
Boredom is: “an emotional state experienced during periods lacking activity or when individuals are uninterested in the activities presented to them.”
So how do we prevent this experience? How can we basically ensure that boredom is not part of our experience any more? It sure seems hard when you’re stuck in a line at the bank, or at the doctor’s office, or a traffic jam.
Here I’ll break boredom prevention down into 5 components:
1) Understand what You Value and what Engages You -
Boredom implies not being engaged, it implies seeing no compelling reason to act or think - it implies the belief that if the world does not spoon feed us something fun for our brains, then we will necessarily suffer from boredom. You must understand what does in fact engage you. Do you like to learn about physics, gardening, psychology? Do you enjoy socializing with new people? Do you like playing chess? The key here is to understand a) what you learn from and can immerse yourself in, and b) what you enjoy doing.
2) Change Your Perspective -
Before we mentioned that it is maladaptive to believe that if you world does provide our brains with fun, then we will be subject to boredom. Why is this maladaptive? Because it is false. Why is it false? Because we can change our perspective. Instead of labeling a situation as uninteresting, how about tuning your mind to find what IS interesting, what IS engaging, what you COULD do to make the most of the situation. We should always seek to find ways to maximize our moments, to find something to draw from them – be it warm human contact, deleting old numbers from your phone, updating your calendar, etc… We can find something to learn, something worthwhile to do and engage ourselves with. How about we instal a new belief that we will live in alignment with what we value every second, not just when the outside world seems to give us nice things to explore with our minds. Stuck in a long line? What do you value, what do you live for, what could you make from this situation? Meet someone, do some visualization of a future task… the focus is always yours to control!
3) Change Your Language -
Language has a massive effect on our perspectives and our mindset. One bit of advice that will instantly benefit you in eradicating boredom is eradicating “bored” or “boring” from your lexicon immediately. There is no reason to use these words. Saying that you are “bored” implies that you do not have the will to change your perspective and stay engaged / enjoying your situation. Saying that something or someone is “boring” implies that it is an innate quality within that person, place, or thing. This is the opposite of the truth.
4) Change Your Body -
What if I told you to imitate a “bored” person, or an “uninterested” person… would you be able to do so very easily? Maybe you would slump over a little, stare off into space with half-opened, and look frustrated and discontent. Bam, you know what it looks like. What do YOU look like when you’re bored? I’ll bet its exactly as you described it. In addition to changing your inside, change your outside. Sit up strait, open your eyes, find things to engage yourself with in an alert and enthusiastic way. Just moving and acting like this will put you in a state of alertness, it will give you access to the resource of alertness. This is what your body moves and feels like when you really are engaged, so your brain will take you to that state more easily.
5) Be Prepared -
I think this is where things get really fun. Inevitably you’ll enter situations where the amount of engaging / fun activities given by the environment seems minimal. This might be a lecture, a long drive, etc… For long car rides, I like to have on some audio programs, or enjoyable / thought provoking music. For a doctor’s office, I like to bring in an iPod (again with audio programs) or an interesting book I’m working on (usually psychology or philosophy related). If its a meeting that you anticipate will not be very productive, plan some important issues to bring up, or focus on setting up an appointment with someone in the meeting you want to speak with, etc…
As a final tip: If you ever find yourself feeling bored, record the event or situation when you go home that night, and use these steps above to understand how you could change the situation to something meaningful the next time you’re in a similar scenario.
Follow these basic guidelines and avoid boredom altogether. Seriously! I cannot promise you advice to keep you from ever experiencing loneliness, or sadness, or regret – but I can say that by abiding by these basic ideas you can bypass boredom as an experience.
Boredom’s algorithm seems to be so much easier than those other emotional experiences (it would take too much time to dive into them all now, haha, believe me!). I don’t consider myself different than most, and I can tell you right now that I have not been bored in about two years – since I caught onto this.
Take these ideas and run with them, constantly look to engage actively with your life and towards your ideals – “being bored” doesn’t ever have to happen again.
(WARNING: This post is not encouraging anyone to develop an affinity for the longest lines at the grocery market, nor is it intended to keep people in jobs or situations that do not provide the ideal in terms of engaging material and activity. I would actually advise striving for life situation that involves as much fun and engagement as possible, a life in line with your values, a life of your design!)
___
If you enjoyed this post and the material on this site, consider signing up for my RSS feed or bumping this material only StumbleUpon or Digg. Thanks a lot!