I don’t know when it happened, but all of it sudden it seems like we’re in a competition to see who is “the busiest.” I can’t recall even making myself eligible for this contest. Now, every time I talk to one of my friends, I find the discussion quickly turning into a “mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the busiest of them all” head to head. My friends often have me incredibly trumped in that regard. Honestly, it’s amazing they even found time to see my slacker ass.

Or maybe I just don’t have enough going on.

You See Me I Be Work, Work, Work, Work, Work…

Forget about taking your time and enjoying life a little bit. You have to hustle and you have to constantly be working. It’s as if we have become ok with living in a perpetual state of tired and exhaustion. If you aren’t killing yourself with projects, work, dating, work again, talking to your friends about how busy you are, work one more time, and showing how busy you are on social media, people begin to wonder if you’re even trying.

You mean your day isn’t so packed that seven coffees with five shots of espresso each and a Red Bull IV drip that rolls around with you all day long only have a nominal effect on you? Lol! Ok Queen Elizabeth, share with us how luxurious it is to have all of that glorious free time and sleep. Email it, of course, so we can speed read it on our way to our next meeting.

We wear our sleep deprivation and exhaustion like a badge of honor. Hustling has completely embodied our culture. It’s the new black. It’s chic. It’s now. It’s wow. Kanye will make the vagrant version and sell it for $2000. It’s already sold out.

I can’t help but wonder why we’re all hustling so hard or at least making a conscious effort to let it be known that we’re hustling. Are we actually hustling or are we just doing it for the exhibition of it all? What do we have to show for all of our hustling efforts? Copious amounts of time to enjoy the fruits of our labor? A career we don’t hate? Horses out back? Boredom has become a pariah reserved for the lazy. We’re averse to it because it shows we aren’t achieving and living up to our peak.

Is Boredom a Bad Thing?

There’s a beauty in boredom. Although, I used to hate it. In fact, I still find myself fighting the urge to reject my boredom and “be productive.” It feels like I’m wasting time– time I should be spending “hustling” and trying to get my life on track to where I want to be (poolside with a glass of champagne cackling with my BFF, Mariah Carey, while checking my bank account and realizing I could indeed retire at age 30 like 10 year old me planned. You go, dream me!). God forbid I spend 45 minutes staring at the wall with my blanket wrapped around my body lip-synching the entire Lizzo album instead of pounding away at my novel. Maybe I needed that, you know?

Boredom is a nice mental reprieve. It’s a moment to think and tap into that weird part of myself that I try to keep at a solid 45% so as not to frighten fellow adults. I want the children to fear me so they get about 75%. Most of my best ideas have been conceived out boredom during a meeting or at church or on a long car ride of which I should probably be focusing on the road. Being bored frees me enough to think weirder.

It was like the good ol days before I spent a good bulk of my time aimlessly scrolling around the internet and watching tv when I had nothing to entertain me but toys, books, and imagination. With minimal distractions and only the burden of the 30 mins or so of homework I had to tend to (sidebar: I was homeschooled for a bit, which A: explains a lot, B: will be a point of discussion for a future post and C: has you questioning how I had homework when all work was “homework.” Shut up. You’re distracting from my point.) I had nothing but time to be bored. The boredom of a child is unparalleled. Set a child alone in a room for 15 minutes and watch the creativity that is produced. Set an adult alone in a room for 15 minutes and they’ll either fall asleep thanks to the first quiet moment of a busy day or die. So much prime imagination is birthed from boredom, so why do we not allow ourselves to be bored?

As we get older and learn that cash rules everything, we’re taught that hard work yields great (financial) rewards. We hustle and keep ourselves so busy working to reach that huge reward that we don’t leave time for boredom and the bounties of that mind clearing harvest. What could happen if we allowed ourselves to be bored enough to see where the clarity of an unfocused mind takes us? Would we come up with the next big idea that allows us to stop hustling so we have time to be bored and ideate on an even greater level? Have we hustled so hard we’ve lost our innovation?

My challenge for myself over the next few months is to not fight boredom. I want to embrace it, see where it takes me and what I create as a result. If you need me I’ll be sitting on my couch staring at my curtains.

Rick, sing us out!