Unfortunately, there’s no magic pill that’s going to make your boring life disappear. But there is a way to make your boredom more manageable, barely noticeable even!
Life is full of mundane, boring tasks that we all have to take care of each and every day, no matter who you are.
But in order to make those tedious tasks fade into the background, you need to be focussed on the bigger and much more exciting things in life.
That is to say, how you manage your boredom is down to what you do in your life and how you then communicate your boredom to yourself.
For example. If you hate your job, are struggling with relationships, don’t have any engaging hobbies, aren’t working towards any new goals or challenges and are simply going through the motions, then it’s going to be pretty hard to feel excited about your life.
Your level of boredom is going to be consistently high and your internal dialogue will probably be on repeat saying: “I’m bored, this is boring, that’s shit, my life is boring…”.
Taking care of the big things
My Dad once told me that “Life is boring” and in one sense, he was right. But on a lot of levels, he was wrong.
What he should have told me is this:
“Life is full of boring and monotonous tasks, but that doesn’t mean you have to live a boring life.”
When the most important (and biggest things) in your life inspire and excite you – your work, your relationships, your goals, values and what you do in your free time, then you’ll be able to deal with the boring stuff much more easily.
Reducing the level of boredom in your life and discovering what you’re passionate about takes effort.
Therefore, you need to be prepared to live a life of trial and error in order to find out what you truly love.
What makes a boring life?
Let’s start by looking at a few things that can contribute to a boring life.
- You’re not inspired at work or you aren’t working at all
- You don’t know what you’re passionate about
- Your personal relationships have lost their way
- You don’t exercise
- You’re not living in tune with your values or you don’t have any
- You don’t have a vision for your life
- There’s no routine in your life
- You don’t have any goals or a challenge
- You’re too comfortable
- You haven’t made any plans
These may not be the only things that are going to make your life boring but if you look at them again, you’ll notice that these are all pretty ‘BIG’ things.
How to redesign your boring life and start living a more exciting one
A couple of years ago when I started on this journey of ‘self-discovery’ I Googled ‘What is my passion?’.
Seriously, I did that.
I’m not quite sure what I was expecting Google to tell me but I think I’d just turned forty and was feeling a bit lost. I’ll use that in my defence.
I had questions like “Who am I? How do I know what do I want to do with my life? and What do I love doing?” flying around my head.
Unfortunately, Google didn’t know much about my passions, but it did seem to know that I was craving a Pepperoni Pizza at the time!
As it turned out though, I was asking the right sort of questions which was a good start, and over the last few years, I’ve been able to turn those questions into solutions.
The following ideas will help you redesign your boring life and start living a more exciting one. Or at least a life where you don’t mind the boredom so much.
Related: 17 essential actions that middle aged men should take
1. Find a job that you love
Your day job is a huge part of your life and is certainly one of the ‘BIGGEST’ things you have to work on if you want to live a more exciting life.
In a lot of respects, what you do for work defines who you are and is usually always the first thing that new people you meet will ask you.
Finding a job that you love is easier said than done, but out of 168 hours in a week, if you’re spending 40+ hours staring into space wishing you were elsewhere, then that’s a huge chunk of boredom taking up your valuable time.
Two of the biggest regrets in life are working too much and not following your passions. Combined (working too much on something you hate) should be considered a life-catastrophe.
Having work that you believe in, that you’re passionate about and inspires you is naturally going to reduce that level of boredom as you lose yourself in your work.
If quitting your job is not an option, then try to focus on the aspects of your job that you do enjoy while you work out an exit strategy.
If you’re ready to quit your job and rediscover your passions, read on.
2. Rediscover your passions
When you enjoy what you do for both work and pleasure, then immediately you’ve cracked a huge part of the ‘boredom alleviator code’.
But knowing what you’re passionate about isn’t easy.
You can’t just Google it (like I did) and expect to have your passions put on a plate in front of you.
You have to work at it.
After all, you might not even know what your passions are yet. Additionally, discovering your passions can be a great boredom alleviator too as you work your way through new experiences and hobbies.
It’s all trail and error.
Your passions may even be presented to you when you least expect them.
My Mum would go out of her way to help anyone, and when she suddenly passed away, I became aware quite quickly that I really wanted to carry on her legacy and try to help people too.
That tragedy led to this website being born and my life taking a very different and positive turn for the better (thanks, Mum).
In order to find your passion, you have to make your life all about trial and error because…
Your passion will never find you
If you’ve never tried paddle-boarding then how will you ever know if you’re passionate about paddle-boarding?
What about photography, triathlon, restoring classic cars, podcasting or acting?
Relieving boredom and redesigning your life has to start with trying new things and finding out about yourself, discovering what you enjoy and who you are.
Remember: Your passion will never find you.
How to find your passion
There are only so many things you can try out in a lifetime, so use the following list to help you work out what your passions are.
- Remember what you loved as a kid
- Consider what you’d do with your life if money was no issue
- Design your perfect weekday, weekend, month, year, vacation
- If you could study again, what would you study
- What do you already enjoy doing in your free time
- Imagine what your dream reply would be to the question ‘What do you do for work?’
- Think of all the times that you did something well, something you stepped up to, really embraced and enjoyed
Combining your passion with work: The ultimate goal
Once you know what you’re passionate about – let’s say you’ve just discovered that you love rock-climbing – if you can then find a way to transform that passion into work.
For example, opening up a climbing wall in your home town or starting a weekend climbing group – then you’re on your way to living a life that revolves around your passion and provides an income.
BOOM.
Naturally, there will still be boring tasks to take care of, but once you’re living your dream, those boring everyday tasks are going to pale to insignificance behind the strength of your vision and passion.
3. Realign your relationship goals
If you sleep eight hours a night then you have about 112 waking hours per week. Give 40 of those hours to your job and that’s about one-third of your week gone.
The remainder of your time is going to be taken up with chores, hobbies and personal relationships.
Therefore, feeling connected with your partner, family and friends is fundamental to reducing your level of boredom.
Romantic relationships
New relationships usually start off in top gear, with both of you heading in the same direction with the same ideas, values and dreams. Even the same passion for nights out and sex.
After a decade or two of marriage with kids in tow, many relationships can become strained and fragmented and when you no longer share the same vision and values you can become detached and bored.
Improve your relationship by reconnecting your goals and taking time to communicate with each other about your wants and needs.
These relationship goals are a good place to start.
Friends
People change all the time and so it’s equally important to keep a check on whether your current group of friends are still fun to be with.
According to the acclaimed motivational speaker, Jim Rohn, “You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
So if your friends are bored, boring and negative then it’s likely to rub off on you too.
So to further reduce your level of boredom, start hanging out with people who have a more positive outlook on life and engage in healthy, positive activities.
4. Exercise more
If you want a less boring life, start moving more.
Trying new things and getting inspired all require energy, and when you’re tired and bored energy always seems elusive.
Along with eating well, drinking more water and getting adequate sleep, you can boost your energy levels by doing exercise.
Simply put, a healthy body is a healthy mind.
Exercise produces endorphins that make you feel good and when you feel good you make better decisions. Your thoughts become slicker, faster and more creative, much more so than sitting slumped in an armchair.
“Motion causes emotion”.
Tony Robbins
It’s hard to feel inspired and energised if you’re stagnant and motionless, and no matter how much you don’t feel like exercising, you’ll always feel better afterwards.
It doesn’t have to be difficult either.
Walking or running are as simple as it gets. You just have to start. Joining a local club will inspire you to do more and help you meet new friends with positive goals too.
Related: The best two exercises to get rid of a beer belly
5. Live by your values
Your values are the things in life that are most important to you and once you understand what your values are you can start to live a life with more purpose.
When you live ‘on purpose’ meaning you know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, then you’re likely to be more focussed and more satisfied with your life.
To learn more about values and how to create your own, check out this article here.
6. Create a life vision
Your values are all about what you care about most deeply and what actions you take.
A life vision is knowing what kind of life you want and visualising it so much so, that you can almost smell it.
If you don’t know where you’re going, then how will you know how to get there?
If you’ve ever travelled anywhere then you’ll know the difference between being on the highway, speeding towards your destination and being lost, waiting for a bus that you’re not even sure exists.
With a live vision in hand, you should know what kind of life you want for now and the future. The more detailed your live vision, the better.
Your life vision should include things like:
- The kind of house you want to live in and where it is
- What you do for work
- Who you’re in a relationship with
- What kind of hobbies you take part in
- The kind of clothes you wear
- The restaurants you visit
- Your physique
- Friends
- Vacations, etc
Having a vision for how you want to live your life is about building up a picture of your ideal life.
It will help you to understand who you want to be and set you off in the right direction, and when you’re moving, your not half as bored as when you’re sitting still.
7. Have a routine
This sounds illogical, but it’s not. You find freedom within constraints.
When you have a solid routine that fills your diary and you know what you have to do and when and when you’re supposed to be doing it, you’re not sitting around (bored) wondering what to do with your time.
A routine that’s focussed towards your vision and values, your work, family, chores and friends will help to keep you occupied with positive stuff and will definitely reduce your amount of thumb-twiddling time.
8. Challenge yourself and create a list of goals
Life is all about challenges and goals. It’s about being the best version of you, and to do this, you need to have something to work toward.
When you challenge yourself and make yourself accountable (Social Media is great for this) then you really can start to come alive.
Set yourself a goal or a challenge and really go for it.
Example Challenge: Run a marathon
Example Goal: Run the marathon in 4hrs 30 and raise $2,000 for cancer
Write a bucket list of the things you really want to do in your life. Create a list of goals a start making them come to life.
Once you start taking part in life rather than sitting on the sidelines then life will surely get less boring.
9. Get out of your comfort zone
Maybe you’ve done well for yourself in business. Perhaps your relationships are all good, you enjoy your work and have nice hobbies but… you’re still bored.
When life is easy and we have everything we want, then equally, it can be boring.
It’s the journey that’s exciting. It’s only when you’re growing, learning and moving that you feel alive.
So if you think you’re too comfortable, look for a new challenge.
10. Make plans – they’re fun to have
Anticipation is one of the most exciting things in life – much more than the real thing.
Do you remember how exciting it was waiting for Christmas and trying to sleep on Christmas Eve? That anticipation would keep you occupied and excited for weeks, yet as adults we rarely get excited about anything.
We know too much.
But by making plans to do new things on a regular basis, you can begin to create a sense of excitiment through anticipation.
Plan your weekends in advance, plan cool vacations, plan to visit friends, or watch bands you love in cities you’ve never been to.
With exciting plans in your calendar, there will always be something to look forward to and help to reduce your level of boredom further.
11. Do what you normally don’t do
There are many different ways to mix things up on a day-to-day basis to keep your life that little bit more interesting.
Here are a few ideas to try:
Wear different clothes, walk a new route to work, get a new haircut, rent a cool car, try a new restaurant for lunch, dare yourself to speak with someone you like or say yes to a new group meet-up.
Change creates change and change is good.
12. Start a side-project
With the tools available to us it’s possible to do pretty much anything with a laptop and an internet connection these days.
Almost anyone can start a new business or project online within a few hours and when you’re working on something that you’re really passionate about, it can be about as exciting as it can get.
So rather than scrolling through Facebook in the evenings or watching another boring 0-0 draw in the football, why not start your own project and challenge yourself to see where you can take it!
13. Keep learning
When you’re not growing and learning. You’re static and stagnant.
It goes without saying that the more interesting hobbies and interests you have, the less of a boring life you’ll have.
Most hobbies encompass some sort of skill, therefore, keeping yourself busy with hobbies, courses and learning new skills is a great way to work on your personal growth.
Online learning via Apps is cheap – even free these days. A great example of this would be the language app, Duolingo.
Even better is getting out to meet up with groups and classes where engagement is higher and more fun.
14. Get offline
Social Media and the internet is amazing if you use it well. (See point 13, above).
However, following the wrong people who just post about how cool their life is can make your own life feel even more inadequate and boring.
Additionally, endless scrolling into a rabbit hole of videos, debate and news without direction can be addictive, and really, really boring.
I don’t know of anyone who feels inspired after a good few hours just browsing!
Scrolling, scrolling. Boring. Bored.
15. Change your diet
Along with breathing and sleeping the only other constant we need in our life is eating and drinking.
Unhealthy processed foods will mess with your blood sugar which can make you feel tired and lethargic.
This can make you less focussed and lead to even more boredom.
Additionally, eating and drinking the same thing over and over is really boring.
Changing your diet will mean discovering new flavours, trying different cafes and restaurants and different types of cuisine.
A healthier diet will also give you the energy to exercise more, and you already know how important exercise is.
16. Change your environment
Whether it’s getting out into the countryside (or out of the countryside and into a city) for a few days or just decluttering your living room, changing your environment can have a huge effect on your mood.
Getting away from the day-to-day grind for a few days is great for refreshing your body and mind.
Additionally, if your home is cluttered and uninspiring then it’s going to make you feel the same.
Take some time to get all ‘Marie Kondo’ and declutter your home and make your environment as inspiring and practical as you can to help keep you fresh and focussed.
I hope these ideas gave you some inspiration to help alleviate ‘your boring life’ and help you to design a new, more exciting one. If you have any other ideas or thoughts about this topic, I’d love to hear them in the comments below.