WHY ARE WE BORED ? (a different perspective)

“Why do I get bored ?”, this is a question that most of us, if not all of us, have asked to ourselves at some point of time.

“Why am I bored in the class ?”; “Why am I bored while studying ?”; “Why am I feeling so blank today ?”; “Am I depressed ?” etc. etc. There are many forms of the same question. Let us see if we can find some part of the solution by starting from the very basics…

Let us ask ourselves,”What do I desire when I am doing any kind of work (playing sports, studying, sleeping… anything) ?”. Close your eyes and think for a while.

I’m sure that we all are arriving at the same conclusion – “I desire a result”. “My major motive behind doing any activity is to get a result.”
From playing sports I desire fitness and/or leisure
From studying I desire a better CPI, a better career
From sleeping I desire a good rest
And so on, so forth

Its not an uncommon thing too. We as human beings have a tendency to expect results. We always have certain expectations with any kind of work that we perform. But is this the right attitude ?

(You might be thinking, ” But dude! isn’t it like, a natural thing ? what can be wrong with expecting results ?”)

Surely there is nothing wrong, but then how is it benefiting us ?

Let’s consider an example, You are eating food. Now sure enough, the motive behind that is to appease your hunger, but during this time is it necessary for you to be thinking about it all the time ?
Will the asking of the question, “Is the food doing its job ?” make the process any faster or slower ?

Even while you are thinking of something else, the food is doing its job. So is true with any work that we do, showing results (positive or negative) is in its nature and it will stand by that, so then why constantly think about it ?

Instead there is a great risk involved…
When we wait for the results of a work to appear and delight us, the risk that we are taking is that of disappointment, because there is nothing in this world that can guarantee us the right fruition of the work that we are doing.
History is replete with instances where even the best designs have met with failure and the wisdom of the wisest has been questioned.

So then may we say that the belief that, “I am doing work simply because I want its results, because that is what delights me.” is wrong ?

Perhaps yes. Since thinking so is always under expectations, whose fulfilment is not in our power.

So then, what is the right attitude ?

This is where our question of boredom is answered.
We must understand the fact that, as human beings, doing work is in our nature. It is an inherent trait that we are born with. Although at any given instant its definition might change from person to person, but it is there and it has to be performed. In not conforming by this fact, is when we fall the prey to boredom.

So perhaps a different and helpful vision would be, “I am performing work because doing so is my nature, and in conforming by that I find delight. In thus fulfilling my nature, lies my contentment.”

“The result will come at its destined time, and there is no stopping that, and when it comes obviously I will be the one receiving it.”

“At the same time this is also true that the result might fail me, but then I won’t face much trouble in accepting it, since I have performed what was conforming by me, with delight and perfection, and after all each failure teaches us something new about sucess.”

Understand the fact that we own the failure as much as we own the success and that the occurance of both the events is in the scheme of nature. Thus by living up to the above lines, you won’t be swayed by the occurance of either of the events (success or failure). You will be able to accept both the extremes with the same attitude.

Believe me dear reader, that this is the kind of attitude that has shaped the greatest successes of all times (of course this isn’t the only ingridient, but it is one of the many that’s for sure).

Pick up any person who has been immensely succesful in what he did, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Mother Teresa, Sachin Tendulkar, Any popular musicain, dancer etc. etc. …
You’ll see that they never ran after the result, they found their joy and contentment in the work they performed and the result transformed itself form being Good to Great to THE BEST.