You Don't Have To Be Bored!
“There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people.” G.K. Chesterton
During our vacation, my son suggested we try to find license plates from all 50 states. (There are 51 plates if you count the District of Columbia, but even though they get a delegate in the electoral college, I'm not sure I'm signing up for the extra plate!)
Of course, with the license plate game there's "an app for that." so we accepted the mission and spent the rest of our trip searching for plates. We've done pretty well on the number, but the bigger win is this:
Never has driving been so fascinating.
We are interested in all of the cars around us. (But moving vans are particularly fascinating.) We can spot states from hundreds of yards away. (Especially Arizona with those desert colors!) We talk about geography, history, and state capitols. (Why is Wyoming so hard to find? Should we really look for D.C.?) We speculate why there are so many Ohio plates in Georgia. (No idea!)
These are lengthy discussions my friends!
Last week we cruised the Atlanta Zoo parking lot in hopes of finding one of our final six plates, to no avail. (Maine, Rhode Island, West Virginia, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Alaska are the holdouts in case you're wondering.)
This entire exercise proves one thing to me: boredom is a choice.
In fact, G.K. Chesterton's quote plays off of this fact and gives me two additional insights.
#1. You are in charge of your interest level
Boredom is your fault.
If you're bored, you have the capacity to change the situation. You can pay attention, dig deep, find something deserving of your thoughts. You can decide to be interested.
Also, and perhaps more importantly,
# 2. YOU are interesting
You are a complex, thought-filled, incredible human being.
Your body is wonderfully made and your mind -- WOAH-- that mind of yours is AMAZING. Your personality suits you perfectly.
Don't allow someone's apathy to impact how you view yourself. Their interest level isn't a reflection on you, but on them.
If you feel under-recognized in your work environment or in social settings, remember this fact -- you are interesting, amazing, special regardless of whether or not the person in the corner office knows your name!