Pffffffffffffffff….
A long sigh leaves my lips flapping around for a good 3 seconds as my shoulders slouch and I stare out the window of my new private office.
I now have a good 20 square meters to myself in the co-working space and no longer sit at a shared desk with other freelancers and young entrepreneurs around me to chat with.
The thought of having my own space to make my own again excites me, and the first thing I did this month was filling it with furniture from my old office that was left over.
Only now that the dust has settled and I was sitting in it by myself I suddenly felt a feeling creeping up on me that I hadn’t really felt in years: Boredom..
The origin of boredom
Boredom, to me and my personality is a consequence of not having a clear objective to pursue yet, or not having the confidence yet that whatever goal I have set myself that I will be successful at it.
It is a state of suspense where the action of the new thing hasn’t started yet, and the conviction and confidence of the early success hasn’t really kicked in yet.
Getting through boredom
It’s not however completely new to me. This kind of boredom was also there when I worked on Funk-e in the very beginning. We would sit around for days not really sure yet if we were doing the right thing.
Bored together
The biggest difference at the time was that I wasn’t alone, I had a co-founder to bounce ideas off. This way we would sometimes sit around and not do much else than talk, but those conversations would sometimes amount to something extremely useful.
For example the decision to get an office was a spontaneous one from an afternoon of sitting around. Once we actually had an office things accelerated quickly.
Experiment through the boredom
The other day another entrepreneur buddy of mine that also recently handed over the daily control of his company called me in the middle of a working day: “hey man, I am super bored, do you wanna come over for a cigar?”
These kind of meetings are sometimes the most important, especially with likeminded entrepreneurs (we are both highly energetic types). If I can, these are always meetings I will say yes to because the output from those meetings is often where the spark of an idea is formed.
John Cleese (world famous comedian known for Monty python) always said boredom and procrastination have a central function in coming up with creative ideas.
Boredom is linked to a relaxed and open mind and when given enough space your brain can surprise you with great pieces of content.
Stay actively bored
Finally, no matter how bored I am, I try to stay away from watching Netflix (even though I enjoy watching movies) during working hours. This is not a solution to getting out of boredom, however it is only postponing the moment of finding that purpose or confidence needed.
I prefer staying actively bored, meaning I keep writing, producing, or creating, no matter how slow. This process helps keep me grounded and gives me material to think about in all these little moments of boredom in the shower, staring out the window or brainstorming on a sunny workday with an entrepreneurial friend 🙂
