{"id":2474,"date":"2021-07-04T03:10:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-04T03:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/?p=2474"},"modified":"2021-07-03T15:00:31","modified_gmt":"2021-07-03T15:00:31","slug":"character-is-what-you-are-when-youre-bored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/2021\/07\/04\/character-is-what-you-are-when-youre-bored\/","title":{"rendered":"Character is what you are when you’re bored."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Character is what you are in the dark.<\/em><\/strong><\/p> – Dwight L. Moody and Lord Whorfin (Dr. Emilio Lizardo)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I agree with the above quote, but also think there is another version of this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Character is what you are when you’re bored.<\/em><\/strong><\/p> – Mark Bradford<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Hard to be in the dark<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When are you in the dark though? The ‘dark’ is when no one is looking, not necessarily when there’s no light. And the dark is when nothing is happening\u2014no stimulus. That last one is hard with social media and our phone always being there. Even if you are doing nothing, or relaxing, you are still doing something<\/em>. You check your insta, FB, Twitter, etc. You putz around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is boredom?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So what is it? In Congrats you’re bored<\/a> I explored what that means to be bored at your job. But I’m talking about experiencing a bout of actual boredom in your free time. It’s not putzing, it’s not watching trash TV or doing a mindless chore. Your mind may wander and you may get no fulfillment. But what I am talking about is just stopping everything you are doing and just experiencing this<\/em>. Actual boredom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isn’t that meditation?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It might sound familiar to meditation\u2014clearing your mind, doing ‘nothing’ and embracing said ‘nothing’\u2014but it’s not. While meditation is accepting no thoughts and the pursuit of that place of nothing, boredom is the pursuit of something to fill the boredom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People with not enough to do?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This might sound like something that only people with way too much free time<\/em> would ever do. It’s not. My experience with myself and many others (though conversations, meaningful Q&A and coaching) is that it is an ever-present thing. We have many opportunities\u2014even on a daily basis\u2014to decide what we will do next. Even those that think their entire day is spoken for have that free will, and there are many that make this statement when the preset day was set in stone by them\u2014the very people complaining about the constraints placed upon them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even those who have a basic job, then come home and eat their heavily-salted snacks don’t experience this. They fill their time\u2014with something, with anything. And anything ain’t nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This concept applies to everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try it<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Your takeaway is two-fold:<\/p>\n\n\n\n