The Sadness in New-Found Freedom
In the last days of my thirty-day notice, I already think of freedom. It’s a two-week period before I start my new job. Imagine all the excitement, opportunities, and mountains of rest I could find in my temporarily chain-free state. Yet, I am sad.
Boredom is seen as a scary thing in today’s society. Chances are that you’ll avoid it at any cost. What kind of sane person would dwell in boredom and be happy about it?
I am.
Because boredom means that you have no care in the world, nothing is occupying your brain. Chances are that if anything were to bother you, you’d be busy avoiding it and quenching boredom.
I went from a stressful state at work where I couldn’t let go and felt like drowning to serenity. Nothing is my problem anymore because I am leaving. And in the wake of my retirement, I am left with boredom.
Stress isn’t a bad thing if it’s in moderate amounts.
Stress is what pushed me to my creative endeavors so I could escape my 9 to 5. My lack of satisfaction and anger towards the menacing way society forces us to work like small little soldiers were the fire underneath my boiling pot of water.
But now that I am relaxed and between jobs, there’s nothing.
I recognize that I am bored and I welcome it. After stressful times in which I was detached from reality and myself, I feel connected again. Boredom means that I am reconnecting with myself because I’ve reached the point where nothing vital is occupying my brain.
Now comes the tricky part.
How can one find motivation in the rest and boredom after the pure Chernybol that was my life merely weeks ago? What can push oneself towards greatness if nothing bothers him?
Sure, the fact that I am continuing the rat race bothers me. But currently, I am letting my mind and body rest. Following the opposite advice of most people, I will not take action to induce motivation.
I will rest.
I will be bored.
Time and time again, this counterintuitive process awakes a deep need for action from within. It takes a while, but after watching countless series and doing a hundred-kilometer walks around the house, it gets to you. The flame ignites from within.
Suddenly you want to do things.
Embrace boredom, especially if you are after a stressful period of time. Boredom means tranquility, a state most people crave all their lives. It would induce the rest required for your mind and body.
And once the rest is enough you’ll feel it in your bones.
You’ll get sick of rest.
And that would be the time of action.
In the meanwhile, I will remain in the sadness of a broken compass. Boredom and rest will turn the needle once the time comes. Now all I have to do is be patient and wait. Hopefully, I will not remain stuck in life:
