Need to ramp up your creativity? Well, you might just need to get a little bored to do that.
Do you remember those summer days, half way through the summer when you got (and I cringe when I say this) – bored? My generation seems to think of boredom as a disease. If your kids were bored – you had failed as a parent. Kids were meant to be constantly “busy” bouncing from activity, to activity. Productive always.
Today, life is constant. Devices always humming and buzzing. Its really a challenge to get daydream, bored. We have taught and endorsed busy – we can’t possibly seize the day unless we have a millions things on the go. Full speed ahead. YOLO and all that.
But it turns out that some idle thinking- staring at the stars, making friends with your thoughts and and just learning to just “be”, might the best way to ramp up your creativity.
Our on the go lifestyle is crushing our creativity. Science can now actually back up the fact that creativity is on the decline. That just makes me all kinds of sad (and visions of “bring back boring” written on t-shirts is emerging in my head) Turns out getting a little bit bored is what can ignite our creative juices. The daydreaming state might bring you face to face with the realization that you desire new goals, or perhaps help you to see new ways to solve that nagging issue at work that seems insolvable. Daydreaming can make your brain find new pathways, challenging you to think and act in new ways. Study after study have shown that in experiments those who were given more mundane or boring tasks were actually forcing their brain to make new connections and that the “boring task” group came up with more creative solutions to whatever problem the researchers asked them to solve.
An occasional bit of boredom can be good for us. Chronic boredom? Well, that’s not a healthy way to live. But while it’s still summer indulge in a little boring. Languishing on the dock, staring off into space – embrace the “do nothing” vibe. Chase those clouds across the sky and see where your mind wanders.
And if your kids come running in saying “I’m bored”. Stand proud and tell them they just might be reversing the creativity decline.
Newton was under an apple tree when he discovered gravity.
Enough said.
