Welcome to Episode 103 of the Strive Seek Find Podcast.
Today we will be discussing the benefits of boredom and what it can do for us in this time of thoughtless distraction.
Worth mentioning dealing with the value of NFL football teams
Suppport the podcast/contact Chance
Welcome to Episode 103 of the Strive Seek Find Podcast.
Today we will be discussing the benefits of boredom and what it can do for us in this time of thoughtless distraction.
Worth mentioning dealing with the value of NFL football teams
Suppport the podcast/contact Chance
In the Oscar winning movie, Gladiator Maximus screams at the crowd at one point are you not entertained? There are days I relate to this more than I ever thought I would welcome the strive seek fine podcast. I'm your host chance Whitmore. There are certain phrases that you use at your own risk in my house. And the words I'm bored is among the riskiest. Well, at least according to the girls that is, but as boredom a bad thing, should we, or our kids, or our friends, or anyone at all, be entertained? In quotes 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year? The short answers to this are no. And well, no again. Now let's get started. At our house, when you have spare time on your hands, and are, quote unquote, bored enough to state it? Well, my wife and I feel that we have a responsibility of care. And while care in this case does not involve kicking up the TV or renting something for them or running to the park in those cases. It does involve the long list of chores that are then provided. And then I'm always surprised at how suddenly, everyone moves from bored to entertained, as they scurry to creatively avoid the list of chores. More to the point, as my middle daughter is fond of saying when she's frustrated, generally while holding the toilet wand after being assigned a job. It's a trap. And yes, she does know what reference that is. There seems to be a movement in modern society, specially among parents and grandparents, that somehow our duty to keep our children continuously busy, engaged or entertained. Whether it is summer camps, or clubs, sports, or trips to the trampoline park or tickets to the waterpark. We keep kids rolling with very little downtime. And with the downtime they get comes more distractions. Netflix, Disney plus x Xbox PlayStation, because we enjoy them, because they enjoy them. They distract us. Or, at least on the surface, they fight off boredom. As a side note here, I'd like to interject any of those things I described in moderation. There's nothing wrong with the problem is when it becomes all encompassing. So why exactly are we so desperate to avoid boredom? Is it because we're uncomfortable in the quiet of our own thoughts? Or is it because while seeking distraction, we can disconnect and be less self aware? Are we really afraid to know ourselves? In any case, let's talk about a few of the benefits of boredom. Start with creativity. Giving your mind the opportunity to roam. And play is where you are going to get some of your best ideas. Sometimes our subconscious provides us with our best ideas. When we're least expecting them. We're letting our mind roam and play a little bit. A chance to be reflective, both self and externally. A chance to understand yourself a little better. think through a problem, or understand those around you and what their motivations are. A chance as you reflect, to assess your values, to consider your purpose, to solve a problem, to experiment and to create. Now let's throw ourselves into the time before constant distraction. We're not going too far back. You're not following your wagon train across the country or anything. Just a few decades, to a time of two channels or sometimes less without video games. When sports was in a season, not year round clubs, try to think about what you did at the time. So I'll give you two brief examples. Let's talk summertime when there wasn't work to be done around the farm rather than entertain us, we were told to entertain ourselves, or at least get out of the house. And this makes sense, because the house wasn't really big, there was no air conditioning. And there were four of us. It was kind of a recipe for some sort of knock down, drag out fight, if he's just stayed there and work, quote, unquote, bored. So you could sit and do nothing outside. Or you could go hike the farm or the canyon below it, create games and tell stories, or our favorite, disappearing and taking care of ourselves until we hear the whistle to come home for the evening meal. Because if you're out of sight, you are out of mind. And the likelihood of ending up with another job went way down. The same time period this could across apply to people living in neighborhoods, because in the old days, you'd go ride a bike and, or walk and you'd find your buddies and you'd be five miles away from home and your folks wouldn't know as long as you made it back home for dinner on time. My second example comes from one of the many, many times growing up when we were snowed in, sometimes for more than a week. And for most of my growing up years, that meant lots of reading, whatever you had on hand, because the idea of a Kindle was still more than a decade away. It meant board games or carts. It meant conversations about what you read or thought about, with your siblings or your parents. In fact, I'd say learn more about both my parents and certain subjects like history than I would have had we had mass quantities of entertainment. This is obviously on top of carrying wood, shoveling, feeding animals, and whatnot. But there was more time. And you had to figure out how to fill it yourself. Whether it was digging a snow cave, or when I was about 1819. Getting a idea of flash of inspiration, and sitting down and writing my first short story as an adult, or at least what I thought an adult was at the time in one sitting in front of the keyboard. And keep in mind, it was a typewriter at the time, about four hours became 18 pages, because I'd been daydreaming. And the images that came out of it became my science fiction short story, the hunt. One of my favorite things I ever wrote. Now, I'm not saying get rid of video games, or streaming. We have them, you should enjoy them and use them appropriately. And the same holds true for most forms of distraction we have today. In moderation. What I'm saying is that by giving us ourselves an opportunity to be just a little bit, quote unquote bored and live in our own head for a while. You will find yourself being a more creative and balanced person. So use those distractions purposefully. And give yourself time and space to be a little bored, a little thoughtful, and grow a bit. Because who knows. Maybe something amazing will come out of it. Worth mentioning. Football has been big money for decades. Love it hate it. And I generally love it. You have to recognize that it moves the dial in this country and the NFL is the biggest dial mover of the mall. Nowhere is this more clear than the absolute obscene amount of money flowing into the NFL coffers. In only the latest example of this comes indirectly from the sale of the Denver Broncos slated to come in at the range of $4.5 billion. It had started conversations. Which brings us to the always engaging Peter King and his football Morning in America column where he posits that we are close to the first $10 billion franchise. In fact, there are some owners that claim that right now they could get 10 billion for those when a less relevant team like the Broncos is going for 4.5. So if you like football, where you just want a front row seat to see the things that we really value in this country. Read this column. Link in the podcast description. That's it for this week's episode of strive seek find. Thanks for listening. If you'd like to support the show, please leave a review on whatever platform you're listening. For other methods of support supporting the show like buying me a coffee or to contact me to provide feedback click on the links in the description below the podcast Once again thanks for listening until next time keep seeking your own brilliant future