The importance of being bored

It’s become very common to see kids glued to their phones. You see  them in restaurants, trains, buses and even playgrounds: they are all  head down, watching a video on YouTube or scrolling mindlessly their  Instagram feed.

Always on. Always connected. Never, NEVER bored.

It's not just kids of course. Seeking distractions is by far our  favourite hobby and the one we are willing to dedicate the most time and  money to. It's quite amazing to see how many industries exist with the  sole purpose of alleviating this specific pain: entertainment, holidays,  video games, sports, gambling.

I find this extremely distressing but I also understand it. Whether  it served a evolutionary need or it’s just a by-product of an advanced  brain, we can’t help it but feel pain when we are bored.

What many people miss is that boredom is one of the best things in life exactly because it's painful.

It’s only when you’re bored, truly bored that your mind rushes to  connect the dots and fill the blanks. Sit on a chair alone for 30  minutes with no distractions and you'll come up with at least a couple  of ideas. Need a solution to a stubborn problem? Sit on a bench in the  park for an hour.

Boredom fosters imagination and is the mother of creativity.

Everything great that ever happened in this world happened first in somebody’s imagination.
― Astrid Lindgren

Just look at a group of kids without toys and you’ll notice that it  won’t be long before they come up with their own games, stories and  creative ways to fill the time.

We hate boredom but pain always brings out the most of us. It’s only when you’re truly bored that you can be truly creative.

Now go and get bored.