Boredom

Posted by Parke Ladd on Sep 16, 2008 in Do Something You Love, Featured {Article} | 1 comment

“The worst that could happen wasn’t crashing and burning, it was accepting terminal boredom as a tolerable status quo.”  -Timoth Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek

I have been reading through several books as of late due to a decent amount of time that has been freed up to me in transitioning from a world of homework and late night study sessions into a world of 9am-5pm (and beyond) work days which casually (and painfully) allow me “freedom” to do with my evenings as I please.  Every book I have picked up and read through thus far has been quite amusing and enlightening at the same time, and my most recent journey into The 4-Hour Workweek has been more of the same and then some.  This afternoon’s reading, as my wife was away coaching little girls soccer practice, had to do directly with allowing boredom to become the norm.  Not only was it a warning that as we get older we lose our sense of adventure and excitement and settle into a life of routine normality, but we start settling for mediocrity in our dreams and goals.  We forget that the least amount of competition is actually for those who strive for lifestyles that only the rich and mega wealthy have obtained (not just talking wealthy in the monetary fashion here, wealth can also be created with time or having passion, exc).  Practically everyone settles for the average and thus, this is where the most competition is at.  At the average level.  

Today, and forever, trade in your realistic dreams for those that are unrealistic.  Stop settling.  Start a journey, a path of high intent, towards something specific that gets you more excited than you have ever been before in your life.  And then go do it.  GO!  Make a move.  Life is short.  Don’t wait till you are 65 to live a life that you believe will one day be great.  Live your life the way you want to live it right now, here, in the present time.  Ferriss goes on to say, and I paraphrase, that having big unrealistic dreams envigorates and excites the one setting them, from the inside out.  It brings a total adrenaline rush unlike any other thing.  To pursue something bigger than yourself is what excitement is all about.  Wow, Parke, why don’t you listen to yourself?  Today, I believe I will.