Boredom — the state of feeling disinterested in one’s surroundings, having nothing to do, or feeling that life is dull.

Ever felt bored? If not, then I applaud you and you can stop reading.

But if you have felt bored before, just know that it’s illogical to feel bored in this day and age where we have more options than ever.

Yet we still feel bored. Why is that?

Let’s take the day and age before computers and the internet. What are some things you can do for fun?

Socialize. You can invite people over, go out together, do an activity, or simply just talk to each other. You can meet new people or hangout with familiar people.

Go outdoors. You can go hiking, go camping, go sight-seeing, go driving, or even just enjoy the fresh air. Any destination works, from mountains to beaches.

Stay indoors. You can read, do arts & crafts, play music, work around the house, or maybe do gardening. You can cook food, eat food, and enjoy the peace of having a roof over your head.

Once we include computers and the internet, our options become much more prolific. Technology alone does not enable these, but because it has evolved at such a rapid pace, it accelerates it by quite a bit.

Entertainment. Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, YouTube, Prime Video, Disney Plus, Peacock, etc. There are way too many options for digital entertainment with the streaming wars going on right now.

Learn. Beforehand, the library was necessary to search for information. Now, we have Google. The barrier has become so low that it’s great. And now, even colleges aren’t necessary anymore since we can watch YouTube videos for our education, and Udemy and Udacity provide amazing course options.

Too many options. I only listed a tiny subset of the available ones, and that’s coming from my knowledge pool. The true amount of possibilities are endless. (Yes, that’s cliche, but also true.)

When we’re faced with so many options, it can be hard to decide. We might want to do them all but in the process of wanting it all, we fear the need to give up the ones we can’t do. This indecision stalls us and we never get started.

The proper counter to analysis paralysis is to let go and just start. You can always swap if during the process you realized something new. But to get stuck and not do anything is the worst outcome of all.

Dear readers, do not grow weary. Do not get to a point where life feels dull. Make your time worthwhile for your own sake.

See you next week.

Jerry