Do you remember the days when as a young child you actually got bored? The feeling like you had nothing to do? My daughter was bored today. I thought to myself, I would love to be bored. When was the last time that I had that feeling? What is boredom anyway? After a bit of research, I was astonished that boredom is actually classified as a psychological emotional state and can be perceived as negative and perhaps even destructive. The english word is boredom, but a better word is found in the french language and that is called ennui. We do not use this word much in everyday talk, but it fits the emotion perfectly. “A feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement,” according to google’s dictionary.
This is a universal experience that almost everyone will suffer from at some point in their lives. Most youth will experience it and surveys indicate that a significant percentage of adults do as well. Seems to happen most in males and in an interesting study there has been a link between low education attainment and boredom. So if you are a man, and did not go to college you are most likely to experience boredom in adulthood. Interesting. Boredom in children is ok, but it also can be highly dangerous to anyone. Ennui could be the culprit behind the motivational force in doing all kinds of destructive things to ease that feeling. People who become chronic abuses of drugs, alcohol, pornography and gambling can probably tie the initial abuse to that of this feeling. Ennui is caused by many things, and after spending some time thinking about it, I realized how and why this feeling could be occurring in life.
Too much of the same thing, repetition of predictable things that do not require much mental attention is probably the largest cause. Being “stuck” in the same old routine can begin to feel like a prison sentence and consequently start to lead to feelings of boredom. When I started writing this, I thought that I was going to say that boredom was a good thing. Rather than considering it boredom, we should consider it a time to rest and relax. However, now that I put some time into this concept of ennui, I realize that this emotion is being caused by the routine which may or may not be good for us.
This can be combated by having a routine that matches what you are good at doing with an adequate challenging situation that stimulates you. Couple this with immediate feedback on your results and you can really start to combat this feeling. This is why companies like Pelaton have had so much success. Creating simple levels of physical exertion, coupled with motivations and lots of instant feedback is a tremendous way to challenge someone just enough and reward them instantly. We must really think about that in terms of human behavior motivation.
There are so many other causes and links to why we feel ennui, but here is the thing to recognize. When you are feeling that way, it is a great time to analyze yourself and consider what characteristics about your life are causing you to feel this way. Maybe it is time to introduce some new challenges, some new interesting things to achieve, and build in a feedback mechanism.
Guy Reams
