Do you remember what you said to your mom or dad when you were young in the middle of the summer? “I’m bored.” I don’t know about you, but I sure did. We lived in the country. There were three television stations at that time and AM radio. During the day there was hardly anything to watch on TV. We either played outside, read a book, built plastic models or did anything else that would keep us busy. At the time, I wished I lived closer to the city, but in retrospect, I’m glad that I didn’t. I had a chance to be genuinely bored, but I came up with some creative ideas! There was nothing that I couldn’t do. I built 12′ tall rockets, underground forts with tunnels, tree houses, bike paths, go-kart tracks, and my own bobsled track in the winter.
The typical day for many
See if this describes you, or maybe someone that you know. You wake up, and you check your cell phone for texts, after that, emails, then all of your social media posts. After this ritual, you shower, grab a quick breakfast sandwich, get in the car and then head to work. At work, you keep your email open and check the inbox every 90 seconds. It’s time for lunch, so guess what you do during lunch? You check your cell phone for texts, then emails, then all of your social media posts.
At the end of the workday, you leave work wondering what you got accomplished. You drive home fed with the latest news and music blaring. After dinner, you watch your favorite shows until it’s time to go to bed. You head off to bed, checking your social media posts one more time, then drift off into dreamland. When you wake up in the morning, you repeat this whole process.
Boredom births creativity
To be creative, you have to get away from pretty much all distractions. This requires being bored. Constant stimulation doesn’t allow our minds to have to work with that creative side of our brain. If we are always spoon fed input, our brains start turning off these circuits of creativity in our mind. The neurons in these creative areas of our brain almost say, “Why should we try to bridge that synapse? You give me constant input from the time you wake until the time your head hits the pillow. I’m not needed any longer.” The creative part of your brain has just shut down. It’s going to take a while for those rusty wheels to get going again.
Can I be creative with a welder?
I started welding a few years back. This past Christmas, I received a book on using welding for making some artsy designs instead of just repairing broken things. I had a few pieces of metal in my garage, but for the longest time, I just stared at them. I couldn’t think of a thing that I could make. I almost gave up, but after about 30 minutes, I took these two pieces of metal and said to myself, “What can I do with these two pieces?” I held them up in all kinds of different positions until I finally came up with something, but it took just staring at them, no music in the background or TV to distract me. Finally, I figured out that I could put a design on the metal, thanks to the craft book. After I created a design, I thought of a use for the old muffler pipe, and voila, an idea had been birthed! This could not have been done if I had any of my distractions to keep me from creating something. Give it a try. Be bored on purpose and sit there with a pen and paper. Who knows, you might come up with something that we will all be reading about!
Always interesting ideas you share. Thanks for sharing your creativity. Btw, how is the metal pencil holder suspended in the air?
It’s an optical illusion. There is a vertical metal rod welded at the back of the tube to the base.
Say hi to Barb for me.
Very creative welded piece you have there. You definitely have the creativity gene in you. I guess we all have to resurrect ours in this age of 24/7 digitization.
Such great points! As a parent, I couldn’t agree more that boredom (minus cell phones) begets creativity.
I definitely agree. I think modern technology has had a negative impact on creativity. All of the first generation Americans came with very little technology and built empires. The boredom of being away from their homes and families made them be creative enough to think of these opportunities. Great post!
Technology is truly a two-edged sword, isn’t it?
This spoke to me! I am a crafter and though I don’t have time anymore to be bored since I have a kid, I totally understand what you are saying. Also, your welding craft seems amazing!
very creative. thanks for sharing this article. so interesting ideas.
I love your holder, that’s surely something that would inspire my creative side every day.
I never imagined welding to be a means to create art. Informative ideas you have here The pencil holder is an attention grabber.
very artsy. I do believe that an artistic brain never gets bored. . there’s a lot of things to do around…
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For me it’s about going out and living life, making observations and then bringing them back to my writing. You are right when we are constantly stimulated, it makes it hard to create.
I just think that we get lazy, I know that I do. I would rather watch what someone else is doing than doing something myself. I know that if I do not take time to sit and think in quiet, I feel as if I have missed some great opportunity the rest of the day.
My current blog is born from boredom! My day job as an admin was so boring I already know my work like the back of my hand, and changing job wasn’t a wise solution then… thanks for my free time to browse the internet, I got a brilliant idea to start my personal blog, learn to improve it and now one of the known lifestyle and travel blog in Manila 😀
Yeah, boredom is GOOD!
Unfortunately I find myself staring at my sketchbook for hours. I currently feel very uninspired but thank you for the great article.
….as so do I, but I would rather stare at the sketchbook giving my creative juices an opportunity than filling it up with mindless busy tasks.