What To Do When Your Job Gets Boring
Life gets boring.
There are two options when this happens.
Switching your focus to something new, or deepening your interest even further.
In April, I moved a half a block away from Dodger Stadium. I love baseball, so I’ve been to a few games. Maybe more than a few. Most of my friends only go to about one baseball game every summer. Because of this, they don’t really know that much about the game. Understandable. But since I’ve been watching baseball my entire life, and since I played baseball growing up, and since I go to games all the time, I see things within the game that many of my friends don’t see. Every pitch means something. Every at bat has a story. Even the boring games are interesting, for a variety of reasons.
In her book Grit, Angela Duckworth says, “Finally, if you’ve been doing something you like for a few years and still wouldn’t quite call it a passion, see if you can deepen your interests. Since novelty is what your brain craves, you’ll be tempted to move on to something new, and that could be what makes the most sense. However, if you want to stay engaged for more than a few years in any endeavor, you’ll need to find a way to enjoy the nuances that only a true aficionado can appreciate.“
You can achieve novelty by switching your focus to a new endeavor. The first time doing something is always exciting. But this approach leads you to not achieving excellence in anything. You’ll stay interested, certainly. But achieving anything great takes decades of commitment.
Take the sommelier. The cue grader. The golf course greens keeper. People in roles like these find endless nuances in their work. They overcame their boredom by deepening their interest, and found a job with which they will never be bored again.
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