How to deal with Boredom, Progress, and a lack of direction
I have never written a blog before, so forgive me for the lack of length and creative writing in it, but I guess that is kind of what this blog is about, how I deal with boredom, progress, and lack of direction in my plateauing career.
Currently I work for a local digital marketing agency with just a 6 person team, I being the ONLY developer. In this role there is only so much work I can accomplish considering I am the only one to create and develop sites for new accounts, as well as do maintenance for all the current clients. Me being alone in this means that there is not a lot of NEW sites to build, as we do not have the bandwidth to do so. I have several clients that rely on me for mostly everything, that includes site updates, design questions, inventory management, data entry etc. All things that need to be done, but don’t really fall into the spectrum of my job description. I do them, because I care about my clients and the well being of their businesses. I love my clients, I love my job, and the work I do, but honestly sometimes the absence of creating new things and the lack of progression as well as creativity is very apparent. So after doing this for over a year and a half I asked myself, WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING? Where am I going? What do I need to accomplish? Soooo many questions arise when you realize that you are not progressing in ANY WAY at the place you expect to progress. When you are bored, and really have no sense of direction of where to go from here. Sure I could study on my own etc, but after working 8–12 hours per day on WEB MAINTENANCE I really don’t feel like coming home and trying to keep it going.
Having this problem starts to send me into a whirlwind of anxiety and depression as well as self-doubt. I start to question myself, my abilites and skills, if I can even do this kind of job. Wondering If I will ever progress beyond where I am at now. Why can’t I seem to get out of this creative black pit of despair and really progress in the things I want to do. I see designers /developers like Tobias van Schneider and levels.io do amazing work and really push themselves to do the best job possible. So why can’t I do that? I know I have skill, I have talent, so why am I at my desk, looking at a series of maintenance tasks, BORED OUT OF MY MIND, and questioning everything about myself. What do I do?! How do I deal with this?
I decided to try something new, I decided to do things that I normally wouldn’t do on a daily basis and Get out of a routine a bit, break through the WALL that I was stuck behind. Getting outside during work and riding my skateboard around the parking lot, writing a blog, making videos etc are all examples of things I do not normally do on a daily basis. Just by changing my routine a little bit every day helped me get out of boredom, allowed me to focus, and prevented a deep depression that I could have been in.
Doing all of that opened a door and shed light on some things for me. So I asked myself, Why am I bored?! I’m doing the job I studied for! This is what I wanted to do, work on websites every single day. Its not like I’m bored because I hate my job, or because the job I am doing is not what I expected. The answer hit me like a ton of bricks. I came to the conclusion that for me BOREDOM IS PROGRESS. The things I do now would have been difficult for me when I first started studying web development / design. All of the code, UX, Illustrator, Photoshop, blah blah blah has slowly become easier and easier that now I get bored doing it. My boredom actually is showing my progression over time, and the fact that I am now bored doing most of these tasks is an excellent example of how how hard I have worked and how far I have really come. That realization has made my boredom fade, and made me have a sense of direction on how to progress from here. It gave me a sense of direction.
So after all of this, I feel I have come up with some tips to help with boredom and progression.
1. Its ok to be bored, things can change fast!
Boredom comes and goes, and is usually apparent during work. But always be proud to have a paying job (as many many people do not have one) and never stop wanting to further yourself in your career. Boredom can be an example of how far you have progressed.
2. Progression is only based on your WILL to progress.
If you choose to be bored, and stay bored, then that is all you will be. Positivity and optimism go a long way when you are trying to find your sense of direction.
3. Try to find a way to progress yourself OUTSIDE of the workplace.
Study things online, go do something new and different. Be spontaneous in healthy ways. Find something that makes you happy, as boredom can often manifest itself into depression.
4. Never forget the potential you posses.
Everyone has the ability to grow and learn. If you feel trapped at your job, GET OUT, try new things, take risks. It may be cliche to say, but without risk, there is no reward.
5. Patience, Patience, Patience.
Sometimes you have to realize that good things will come as long as you continue to work hard, and put forth the effort. Never stop making connections, never stop grinding, but have the understanding that without a bit of patience all you are doing is working and not enjoying the experience.
6. SCREW the Haters.
I think the title is self explanatory here, there is a great quote that helps drive it home:
“Surround yourself with people who motivate you and always make you feel good about what you do, regardless of the outcome. These personalities are rare, so if you find them, keep them.” — Tobias van Schneider
These are just some of my thoughts on how being bored isn’t the worst thing in the world, why we are sometimes bored, and finding direction and making an effort to be creative and live the life YOU want to live.
Thanks For Reading!
-Aaron Scarborough
