“The cure to boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” ~ Dorothy Parker
I was talking with a friend about feeling “stuck,” that paralyzing brew of boredom and frustration, of wheels spinning deeper and deeper into a mental rut. Stuck seems to appear unexpectedly, without warning. One day we’re fine, and the next we’re stuck. And that stuck feeling feeds on itself, growing stronger each day.
Stuck is a disruption of the natural flow of energy. The energy is there, it just lacks friction—a challenge or issue to grab hold of that energy and move it to pay deep attention, to ourselves and to the world. And then, like a sliding car that abruptly hits a dry patch, we straighten out. We’re focused, aligned and happily moving again.
When I shared my perspective on being stuck with my friend, my answer must have sounded utterly absurd: “Your problem is you don’t have a problem.” The irony is, the more I experience, the more I realize that the most profound answers (and questions) often sound absurd. And that’s because our prevailing mode of thinking, often deemed “common sense,” is paradoxically the root of most of our problems.
I’m deep into exploring and fleshing out my own seemingly absurd question: What would happen if we viewed everything we do—or allow to continue in our life—as something that we want? As anticipated, various insights are emerging from this curious inquiry, and I’m eager to refine and assemble them into a cohesive picture for you to see.
At least I hope you’ll be able to see it, because it flies in the face of what most of us have been led to believe about life and living. It’s a simple idea, but it’s unfamiliar and unfashionable, and that’s the difficulty of understanding it. Paradoxically simple things can often be the most difficult and rewarding, as you will soon discover.
Stay passionate!
Tom, This email blast from you really strikes a cord. And . . . I fully agree with the comments of Dorothy above. The world/country we live in is taking all of us into not just boredom, but ultimate frustration that nothing can be "right."
Underpinning all of this boredom and frustration is how to find out the TRUTH to what's really happening? Certainly the media has abandoned its role as a neutral arbitrator of TRUTH. On all sides, they spew targeted mis-information. I wish I had an answer. My curiosity is high, but my learning is low. Sad but true!
It is very interesting. I am going to pay attention to the things I do without wanting it. What is your estimate? That we do 20% of things we don’t want?