Embrace your boredom!!!
I’m not sure exactly why I like this article by Peter Bregman so much…I’ve been trying to give it some context in my mind but I’m struggling a bit…and I’m not sure exactly how it applies to leadership either. Well I have some vague, not fully-formed thoughts about how it might but I’m finding it a little bit hard to articulate. So I’m just going to blurt some stuff out and leave you to connect whatever dots you choose do.
I think the idea of deliberately pursuing boredom to stimulate creativity is so simple and yet so inherently sensible. I like the way Bregman finds the positives in something we are all taught to avoid. As he says…
‘Being bored is a precious thing, a state of mind we should pursue. Once boredom sets in, our minds begin to wander, looking for something exciting, something interesting to land on. And that’s where creativity arises’
…and as I have said previously, creativity or Inventing is an important leadership capability in this day and age.
It also speaks to me about sensemaking as well…part of good sensemaking is to step back and look at the situation from an ‘outsiders’ perspective. Heifetz calls it ‘getting on the balcony’. But this is very hard to do when we are constantly in the thick of the action. But boredom gives us time to do this, ‘…the moments in which we, often unconsciously, organize our minds, make sense of our lives, and connect the dots. They’re the moments in which we talk to ourselves. And listen.’
I guess I just have a liking for looking at things in a different way…I’ve always been one of this people who has sought to keep myself constantly distracted, perhaps to actually keep myself out of my own head 
, but now I say viva la boredom!