Here is another excerpt from my latest book, Simple Realities (The pathway to happiness and success), which is now available at Amazon.com and on Kindle.
It was a mind-numbing job for a fifteen-year-old. For eight hours a day, five days a week, I had to sort bills of lading, identified by six-digit numbers, into their numerical sequence. To maintain my mental health I began to work out ways to make the job more challenging. For example, I would imagine the number on each new bill to be a sports statistic, such as goals, assists and penalty minutes, or hits, runs and strikeouts, pretending that each one represented one of my seasons in the big leagues. Another tactic I used was to estimate how many sheets were in a handful, sort them, and then see how close my estimate was. Given some thought, there were many ways to beat the boredom.
The best way to deal with a boring situation is to improve it.
If you’re intelligent and you’re bored, it’s your fault.
Bored people are usually boring people.
Bores spoil your solitude without providing you company.
A sure way to become a bore is to be interested only in your work.
It’s amazing how often we get to sit beside the only person in the world who knows everything.
There are no uninteresting subjects, just disinterested people.
To avoid being bored with something, learn more about it
There are basically two kinds of boring people; those who never speak up and those who never shut up.
People get bored hearing about roads they’re never going to travel.
Perfection is usually boring.
The only good thing about being bored is that it’s usually safe.