Don’t Be Boring
By: Patrick M. Kennedy
If people are yawning all around you, does that mean you are boring? You may have to go through a short self inspection of your personality to see if you are uninteresting and tiresome, and maybe dull, to others. Many senior citizens fall into this in the transition from a busy work day filled with other-person generated activities, to a day filled with only you to generate interest and participate in the goings-on. Maybe it’s not enough.
For starters, possibly, in a life, personal boredom sets in, which is an emotional state experienced during periods lacking activity or when one is uninterested and unaware of the surroundings, life; and you pass it on to others. They sense it like bloodhounds and thus the yawns.
The TV watching 24 hours a day isn’t life. Oh it may be absorbing and engaging, gripping and riveting, but it is not real. Talking from me to myself and yelling at the TV is not a conversation; it’s sorta like playing ping pong alone – one ball, one paddle, and the score is always zero to zero. Crossword puzzles are challenging and keep the brain from deteriorating, but that is also just one-person exerting personal brain matter. It doesn’t create a lot of give and take with others. It’s even hard to yell at a crossword puzzle and get an answer. Hermit comes to mind when analyzing these activities of isolated existence.
Reading books is another being-by-yourself activity, but may expand the conversations with others, especially if a group book club is added to the mix. Discussing a good book everyone has read is much easier than finding even one person to discuss the latest episode of ‘Law and Order’. “There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still,” said President Franklin Roosevelt. Being alone and being uninteresting is similar to standing still, and it generates a boring person.
The idea is to move around both physically and mentally. “The less routine, the more life” said the Philosopher Amos Bronson. Even some of our favorite things can become routine. Walking, jogging or even running several times a week can be a routine that gets you outside and maybe even stimulates the brain. Ideas will flash into the imagination as trees or parked cars fly by. Mix it up and run a different way every day. Maybe a running club will help, or even a gym and a treadmill gets one outside and communicating with other runners.
There are ways to fight being boring, and we see it starts with being bored. Take an inspection into your life to figure out why you are bored. Look at things in a new way and use creative thinking to find the fun in everything you do and make it exciting enough to talk about. Make a list of things you want to accomplish in life. Try to appreciate new things, like art, music, books, or a garden in the yard, or even a few flower pots on the sill. Remember that being boring is hardly the worst problem you could have, but don’t make it someone else’s problem.
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