In the book "Busy"1, Tony Crabbe shares his standard response when his kids say, "I'm bored." Tony replies, "Your boredom is the greatest gift I could give you." As a fellow parent, this reply made me laugh and nod at the same time. It is so very true. In this world of non-stop stimulation, we've lost any concept of down time, slowness, and boredom.
Arthur C. Books explains why this is so bad in a five minute video called "You Need to Be Bored"2. Boredom is when your Default Mode Network (DMN) kicks in, the part of your brain that is waiting for down time to be able to come in and start asking the hard questions. Arthur says, "Being bored can lead you to ask big questions. That's good." He then goes on to explain the value, and the associated healthy discomfort, of being asked the big questions.
Time spent in the DMN is when you're searching for meaning. Does that sound scary or exciting? For those with no practice wrestling with deep questions, it sounds scary. But this is yet another "practice makes better" situation. Much like my single-tasking workout in Finite Time3 that progresses you from 5 minutes up to 25 minutes of singular work, Arthur's recommendation is to build up to where you can comfortably spend 15+ minutes being bored. "Start getting better at periods that are 15 minutes and longer of boredom, and watch your life change."
Arthur isn't exaggerating. These deep thoughts are what drive you towards your goals. In that quality time spent with yourself, you find your purpose.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Uplevel Pro to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.