Bored? Read this!
Fellow rebelutionary, Spunky Junior, shares the following quotation by G.K. Chesterton: “There are no boring subjects, only disinterested minds.”
Chesterton is right. When you think about it, there really aren’t any intrinsically boring topics. After all, some people really are interested in studying a dripping glob of congealed black tar for decades on end. In fact, someone won an Ig Nobel Prize for doing just that.
However, although there isn’t such a thing as a boring topic, there is such a thing as a bored person. Each of us experiences the feelings of boredom on a daily basis. Unfortunately, many of the things that seem boring (or disinteresting) are the very things that develop godly character and competence — things like school, reading our Bible, studying theology, or spending time with our family.
Here’s the question: What is boredom and how can we change our interests so that we enjoy doing hard things?
So what is boredom? Our father has always taught us that boredom is the mind’s equivalent to hunger. Just like hunger signals your body’s desire for food, so boredom signals your mind’s desire for mental stimulation. To put it simply, when you’re bored, your mind is hungry and it wants to eat.
When a person gets hungry enough, they’ll eat almost anything. It’s the same with boredom. If you get bored enough, you’ll start reading through the dictionary. I know, because I’ve done it before… And actually, I learned a lot of neat words.
So being bored, like being hungry, is not a bad thing. What is bad is when we satisfy that hunger with worthless clutter. Just like you can appease physical hunger by eating physical junk food, you can appease mental hunger by filling your mind with mental junk food. We eliminate the feelings of hunger, without delivering the nutrition our body needs. We eliminate our feelings of boredom, without allowing it to accomplish its intended purpose, which is to drive us to seek knowledge and gain character through study, contemplation, and hard work.
To make matters worse, we live in a world that seems intent on eliminating all feelings of boredom, without really feeding anyone’s mind. The Internet, 24-hour cable television, TiVo, cell phones, pagers, instant-messaging, text-messaging, email, and iPods, are just some of the ways our culture allows us to be constantly connected to, interacting with, and entertained by people and media.
It’s kind of like living in a world with big bowls of cheese puffs everywhere. Everyone is constantly munching. Hungry even a little bit? Pop a handful of cheese puffs! There’s always a bowl right next to you. In fact, you never even get hungry enough for a real meal, because you’re always eating cheese puffs.
We can laugh at how ridiculous that sounds. After all, our parents would never let us continually snack on cheese puffs, and we wouldn’t do it anyway. We know that ruining our appetite for what is substantial, healthy, and nutritious is foolish. And yet we are constantly ruining our mind’s appetite for what is substantial and intellectually nourishing, by filling it with mental junk food. One of the reasons we often procrastinate about important projects is because we never allow our brain to get hungry enough to enjoy tackling it. We just satisfy it with cheese puffs.
Our appetites are very much shaped by what we satisfy them with. If we always drink a Coke when we’re thirsty, what we will start longing for when we’re thirsty? Coke. If we always eat cheese puffs when we’re hungry, what we will start longing for when we’re hungry? Cheese puffs. In the same way, if we always surf the Internet when we’re bored, what will we start longing for when we’re bored? Surfing the Internet.
You see, we don’t get nourished, we just satisfy the feelings of boredom. But that just makes our minds more hungry, so we surf the internet a little bit longer next time (maybe a little bit deeper too). We’re constantly ruining our appetite for activities that grow godly character and competence, and then we wonder why they seem “boring” or “uninteresting” to us.
This is a call for action. It’s a crisis and an opportunity. A crisis, because we cannot afford to continue appeasing our mind with junk food. An opportunity, because by guarding what we feed our mind when we are bored, we can shape its appetite to long for what strengthens and nourishes it. The more we do that, the more we will enjoy completing our God-given responsibilities and the more great things we will accomplish.
So what do you use to appease your boredom? First, recognize it. Once you’ve done that, make a focused effort to stop using it to appease your boredom. Instead, try this: Let yourself be bored for a while, then tackle something hard. It could be finishing a project, reading a great book, organizing an activity with your siblings, or any number of things. Just make sure it’s not something that comes easy. Once you’ve done it, come back here and tell us about it.
Further Reading: “Do Hard Things” Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Have Fun
February 11th, 2006 at 3:11 am
hmmmmm…your boredom analogies are kind of like the saying ” I don’t want to be pacified, I want to be satisfied.”
I prevented myself from being bored tonight. I spent the last um…..many hours, making Valentimes Day cards with a lady from church and my sister!
I have no one to give the cards to but I have them. Maybe one day I’ll find them useful……. 
February 11th, 2006 at 3:40 am
How about sending those valentines cards to abandoned children?
“All you NEED is LOVE” Penny Lane Valentine’s Day Outreach 2006
Every Child deserves to be loved.Penny Lane serves children of all ages who have been abused abandoned and neglected, families in crisis and young adults building lives that break the cycle of abuse.
THIS YEAR, Penny Lane is reaching out to you and to the community with our Valentine’s Day OUTREACH!
Share the love you have to a Penny Lane child who needs it!
OUR GOAL: Gather 1,656 Valentine’s Day Cards - one card for each child, teen, young adult, and family served by Penny Lane. Each card represents a moment of love
That can brighten a day and build a positive future.
HOW? Simply send a Valentine’s Day card to Penny Lane
DUE DATE: Send all Valentine’s Day cards by February 13th
WHERE: Mail cards and donations to
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Attn: “All you need is love” C
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NORTH HILLS, CA 91343
http://www.volunteermatch.org/results/opp_detail.jsp?oppid=246840
February 11th, 2006 at 3:54 am
Sounds like an idea, Kaitlin!
February 11th, 2006 at 1:19 pm
That’s an awesome idea! Thanks for telling me about it Kathryn!! And thanks Alex and Brett for telling me to check back here!!
February 11th, 2006 at 9:07 pm
Excellent food for thought:)
sarah
February 13th, 2006 at 12:51 am
I really enjoy and appreciate your blog, and I enjoyed this post in particular. I am one of those people who tends to spend a lot of time surfing the web instead of being productive, so I will be sure to keep your advice in mind next time I’m bored.
Thanks for keeping me thinking. =)
Amy
February 13th, 2006 at 4:50 am
Hi! I’ve been hearing a lot about you guys and your blog for a long time, so I decided to check it out. And I’m really impressed! From the little I’ve read on here so far it seems like a really great place for teens. Thanks for being an inspiration!
February 14th, 2006 at 3:18 am
The article was wonderful!
On a side note, in Firefox, the recent posts say they have 0 comments, when in fact they have many. I don’t know what’s causing that, just thought I’d point it out.
September 16th, 2006 at 9:13 am
I enjoyed this article very much, since I’m a homeschooler and have time to be bored!
September 17th, 2006 at 6:34 pm
I always heard boredom defined as “Lack of imagination to come up with something useful to do with your time, usually used as an excuse to get somthing or play a game, ect.”
September 24th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
I agree with Nick. When most kids say, “I’m bored,” they usualy want something from a parent or grandparent, or to be entertained by someone. I think we as teens and young adults should think before we decide that we’re “bored.”
October 12th, 2006 at 8:53 am
WHEN were you guys so bored that you had time to read a dictionary??? Knowing everything that you guys do, and remembering two novice debaters who made it to nationals…I just don’t get that.
I really liked what you said about the cheese puffs. Its so true; when you train yourself to want something, that’s all you want.
Thanx for all you are doing
October 15th, 2006 at 6:45 pm
Well, I’ve been “bored” enough to read the dictionary, and it has helped me with my school in the past so I can’t say that I was really “bored”. Alex, Brett, I read about you guys in the World Mag article about homeschooling bloggers. Keep it up you guys!
December 27th, 2006 at 7:47 pm
Right on.
I will have to put these words into actions the next time I’m bored.
See you then.:D
December 29th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
This blog is great!
January 26th, 2007 at 11:48 am
I don’t have time to be bored!
February 1st, 2007 at 7:17 pm
Nice blog and content… By The way, do you change your templates often?
February 17th, 2007 at 6:33 am
I like this blog…btw, which themes did you select from to decide on your format?
February 22nd, 2007 at 11:31 am
I’ve never thought about boredom like that before …. I’ve been told that it’s wrong to be bored. I don’t think that’s necessarily true. I think it’s what you do with those feelings of boredom that’s right or wrong. You can either just turn on the TV, or you can go read your Bible or pray for a while. I think this is a great article, since I get bored sometimes (and don’t always make the right choice!), and I’ve found the article very encouraging. Thanks!
February 24th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
A very thought provoking post. I must admit though, that I read the dictionary even when I’m not bored
(Its actually very interesting!)
April 22nd, 2007 at 9:11 am
This is a great blog! Do you take donations via paypal?
April 29th, 2007 at 3:35 am
great article,thanks!
May 4th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
I was bored this very evening. Because of a busy day full of new information, my mind was on low power before diner. After eating and going with the family to see a display, my mind was refreshed and demanded more stimulation. My brain seemed to say in a disturbing monologue (and I don’t really have voices in my head):
“I wanna play the piano.
“Well since someone else has it, I wanna do email, and check out the Rebelution.
“Someone is on the computer? Bother.
“I’m bored.”
So, with no lighter diversion, I went and read Orthodoxy. It is not fun fiction or dramatic news, but an involving, humorous, book about truth. The truth can be complicated, but not from Chesterton’s pen. Connecting ideas in exuberant acrobatics of logic, he reveals the risibility of philosophies in his time. (He also uses better taste in sentence construction and diction than I just did.) I’m currently early in Orthodoxy, having recently finished the prequel Heretics.
Bored? No, longer, for by doing the hard thing of reading a theology, I fed my brain.
March 13th, 2008 at 2:58 am
Great article, thank you. When we were younger, my Mum banned us children from saying the phrase “I’m bored”. I think it was a great idea as the word “bored” is now almost nonexistent in my vocabulary! There was (and still is) plenty of work to be done. *smile*
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:48 am
^
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My mother used to say “Boredom is a sin” every time I would say “I’m bored.” I never really thought of it as mental hunger before! I think next time I’m bored I will say, “I’m hungry” and then fill my brain with nurishing food.
Thank you for the insightful post!
May 1st, 2008 at 7:34 am
I never thought that reading about boredom would be so much fun!!
May 18th, 2008 at 7:10 am
O my gosh it works! ive been putting of studying for finals for a long time so i sat my self in a chair and stared at the floor for an hour and then went and studied im surprised how much i learned and how unboring i was!!!! =)
May 20th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
pretty sweet. I have found myself reading the dictionary too
May 20th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
pretty sweet. I have found myself reading the dictionary as well
May 29th, 2008 at 10:15 am
I love this article. It has changed how I look at a lot of things. I think more now, rather than just filling my mind with distractions.
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Wow! I never thought about it that way! Great job in bringing that to the light! I will definitely remember that. I have been doing that alot lately- filling my mind with mental junk food. So now I think I’ll go have my meal by reading the book I keep putting off!
June 11th, 2008 at 12:42 am
[…] barrage of blog posts Jump to Comments Yes, daily blog posts, sometimes a few a day. I think i’m going to be subjected to this forthe next three months, thanks to having only one half day of class a week. Contemplating finding work or starting to sell stuff again. Selling is abit sporadic though. I’m just dying to get out of the house most of the time. Feeling like the dog again. Not that feeling bored is bad, just a natural hunger for some mental stimulation. […]
July 4th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Wow! I have never thought of bordom that way before! It really makes tons of sense and I can’t wait to erase the most popular word from my vocabulary. Thanks for shedding some light on the subject. Keep it up you guys, God’s doing awesome things through you two!
July 11th, 2008 at 6:19 am
What kind of books would you recommend us to read?
July 14th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
all kitchen speed stay ocean juicy keyboard english head
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:08 am
this is a great article!!! i must admit though, i’ve never read the dictionary
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I love the quote in the beginning! This article is fab! I’ve read the dictionary before.:)
November 5th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
After the first Paragraph I felt guilty for even opening this page. I was very interested in the web site, just tired and ready to go to bed. I didn’t finish the article, for now at least because I am going to bed. I want to read through some more of this site when I can focus.
I am sure there was more to thee article than saying, if you opened this page then you are “disinterested in whatever you are seing.”
Which at this time is anything but true.
Gosh I am tired.
November 5th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
PS
watching a blob of black tar sounds like something a person with no purpose in life would do….and for decades?!!! That is very sad. Think of all that time that could have been used making a difference in our world. UNless the difference that person would make is negative. This is a very long Post Script and I really do have to go to bed…
Going now for real..