Moving Beyond Boredom to a Life of Joy

Welcome to the first blog of Living More Than OK. About three years ago I began reading up on the issue of boredom and life. This resulted from an encounter I had with a student in my office for Career Counseling, who happened to be struggling with his classes. In the discussion of what was the main problem other than uncertainty on a career focus, he mentioned that he was easily bored with his classes, especially the liberal arts basic courses. Boredom would overtake him and he would start skipping class. Over the next couple years, I informally kept track of students who brought up boredom as a negative effect on their education and life. Within one year at least 14 students brought up the issue of boredom as a major factor in their difficulty with college. As I read literature on boredom, it affirmed what I was seeing in some of the students, that boredom can negatively affect students’ progress.


Although this hit me at that point in time to encourage researching the issue of boredom, I had been working with college students for about 8 years and the word boredom would come up time to time. Personally, I had a hard time relating to where my students came from as I had never been that bored in education. I always had and still do a love for learning. As I looked at my other areas of life boredom really did not seem to bother me. This will be an issue for another blog! Yet books and articles I’ve read show boredom is a problem for many people.


One quote that struck me about boredom is from Lars Svendsen, a Philosophy professor in Norway. In his book A Philosophy of Boredom he states – “Boredom is inhuman as it robs human life of meaning, or possibly it is an expression of the fact that such a meaning is absent.” In my work with college students I always emphasize there is so much potential in life for their personal fulfillment and doing great things. Are we robbing ourselves from all that life can offer by living boring lives of just ok? How can we reach for more potential in our lives and live more that OK?


Just the word ok is intriguing to me. In naming the blog I thought how I often respond “OK” when I am asked how I am doing. But isn’t living just ok beneath our potential? Isn’t OK living kind of boring? Living in boredom is living in a cloudy maze similar to a depressive fog. Just OK living is going through the motions with no purpose or meaning. I don’t see it as a way of being, as we were created to be. We were created for a better life. The statement of Jesus comes to mind, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 10:10). This is more the way I think we should be living life. Abundant living is living life to the fullest. Boredom steals from our living and destroys and in some cases sadly, even kills. Abundant living and practical ways to live to our fullest God given potential is what I wish to explore is this blog. How can we move beyond boredom to living a joyful and abundant life? Hope you enjoy the journey.