Evan Nichols: Get Bored

Evan Nichols shares why boredom can be the key to solving larger issues.

Do you agree we are in a big mess: the climate, politics, the economy? What are we going to do about it? How are we going to find our way out of this disaster? Three steps: Get bored! Stay bored. Innovate!

In fact, boredom may be the only chance we have to survive as a species.

When I think back over my life, it was often during moments of extreme boredom that I stumbled upon something that led me in a new direction, busting free from old patterns.

When I was bored as a kid and my parents were busy, I learned to ride my bike to my friend’s neighborhood for the first time, doubling my known universe. When my parents dragged me off on vacation with no friends, I taught myself to play guitar. As a young teacher stuck in bed for weeks with a full leg cast, I wrote my best song for class.

When Leonardo Da Vinci was bored, he scribbled things in his journal like, “Why is the fish in the water swifter than the bird in the air?”

Boredom is not a problem; it’s an opportunity.

In one of my favorite children’s books, “The Wheel on the School,” a teacher excuses students from class and instructs them to roam the village, thinking about a problem. He tells them, when you wander and wonder, good things happen! I don’t think we’re doing a lot of wandering these days, and I don’t think we’re doing a lot of wondering.

So, ask yourself, have I let myself be properly bored recently? And when you were, what did you do about it? Did you reach for an anti-boredom device to numb the feeling, or did you let the boredom take you somewhere new?

Did you wander? Did you wonder? If you want to change the world, get bored! With a Perspective, I’m Evan Nichols.

Evan Nichols teaches English and ESL at Merritt College in Oakland.