There comes a time in life when you find a truth so compelling that it moves you to share that truth with as many people as possible. The truth that I have come upon is that boredom is one of the most overlooked causes of destructive behavior that exists.
If we consider some of society's greatest modern-day challenges, obesity, alcoholism, drug abuse, tobacco addiction, sexual diversion, violence and media overload, the one word you never hear in relation to these destructive behaviors is boredom. It is my firm belief that all of these behaviors can be eliminated simply by facing the topic of boredom and finding ways for people to cure it. If there is anything in the world that is treatable, it is boredom.
In my experience, people tell me that they are never bored. In reality what it means is that they are busy, always doing something, mostly because they have to just to keep up with life. But being busy is not the opposite of being bored, in fact it is a distraction from the realization that you are bored.
It is possible to spot people who are bored. They are overweight, smoke, drink too much, are locked in to their i Phones, or computer games, watching banal television shows, are in prison or spending too much money, in gangs or at the casino. Admittedly, some of these behaviors aren't necessarily bad, but it is the fact that people are avoiding themselves by filling their emptiness with an excess of external stimulation.
Doctors diagnose an illness by evaluating the symptoms. To answer the question "Am I bored?" we need to look at the symptoms. What question needs to be asked to identify a symptom? This is the question I have searched for and have found.
"What do you do even if you know you shouldn't be doing it?" For example, the answer could be, "I eat too much even though I am overweight." Maybe the number one issue in American society. The following questions would be:
1. When do you eat?
2. What do you eat?
3. Where do you eat?
4.What are you doing when you eat?
5. What do you do after you eat?
And the number one indicator is
6. How do you feel after you have eaten?
My guess is, if you just answer question number 6, you will get the symptom which will direct you to your real issue. For food, it is certain that "full" is the answer. So, the symptom for your condition is emptiness.
Looking at other issues you could determine a lot in this way.
If you are addicted to alcohol, then the answer is "relaxed", meaning your symptom is stressed. For an addiction to drugs, the answer is "high" which means your symptom is low. For overt sexual behavior, you feel "release", or maybe "warm", possibly "loved" meaning that your symptoms are probably that you feel trapped, cold and unloved.
What this is all really pointing to is that people are searching in all of the wrong places for relief of their symptoms, because the underlying symptom is ''meaningless'' and the cause of that is boredom.
Napoleon Hill's time-tested-book, "Think and Grow Rich" claims that the most important key to success in anything is having a "Definite Purpose" for your life. Boredom is a life led without a definite purpose.
So, where there is no definite purpose, there is a void, a life led like a lost sheep, no mission, no compelling goal, in essence meaninglessness. Can you be busy and have no definite purpose? Of course, in fact it is rampant.
So how do you give your life meaning? The first step is to replace all of your undesirable behaviors with the expression of your emotions and sharing that in some way with others. Whether it is writing, painting, singing, dancing, doing a sport or building a tree house, I don't know, but the only way to end meaninglessness is to define your soul in the expression of your emotions in a concrete way. Your life, you, have meaning. To end boredom, end your destructive behaviors, you need to express yourself and take account of your life. Then you will see ways to make that better, and who knows, you may even discover your life's mission. This could lead you to your life's work and make your work valuable in the world.
The place to look for answers is not outside of you but deep within you. End boredom by discovering your golden being at the core.
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