[niki]

1) Have you INFPs often feel easily bored?
and I mean from the 'mild' boredom, until the very severe boredome ie: you hate how your everyday's life is just a set of freakin' same monotonous boring routines & 'rules' (expected and 'entrapped' by society, usually..) ?

And what do you DO about it?

2) and in terms of our task/job or most importantly in our dreams-related goals & tasks,
I've known (& read here) of how most INFPs (also including me..) often got excited at the beginning of our tasks, even if it's our loved-passion or our dreams-related tasks,...but only -in reality- can stand until the middle part of the task/project, and then felt bored easily again, then our 'agitated' INFP mind kept wandering & seeking NEW things (constantly!), and want to move into another task/project or thing!...and this keeps repeating & repeating,
and as a result: NOTHING ever get really done/accomplished!
even the worst (if you're like me): you started viewing yourself as a "no-good 'multipotentials/multitalented' LOSER" , that in this so-called 'practical' REAL-WORLD, you can't seem to function normally, and thus can't "succeed" !

What do you DO then about this 'easily-bored' (almost ADD/ADHD too?..) tendency when doing our task?

Please share.
because I seriously feel like what I've just described above: a total 100% 'impractical' loser (especially in my traditional chinese's parents eyes!!..) who can't seem to function well in this REAL-world (only very well in my own vivid, or perhaps should I say: the 'Universe' of my Mind/Imaginations!..).
but f*cking alas, we all still 'trapped' in this so-called "mundane, boring, dry, monotone, bleak, soulless" Real-world,
so like it or not, we should DO something about it, right?.. (other than killing myself & shed off this disgusting, boring, Limited, mundane physical body!)

thank you~

 

[Acey]

I started taking ADHD medication. It's worth looking into.

 

[infpblog]

There's an anecdote that I love:

Kid to mom: I'm bored.
Mom replies: Stop being boring.

Haven't you ever noticed that the people you find the most interesting are never bored?

Motivational speaker John Demartini said something I find very true. The tasks and goals that most align with your highest values you are inspired to do. And the tasks align with your lowest values you need motivation to do. Remember that first date with someone you had a crush on for a while. Did it get boring? I mean showering, finding something to wear, finding some place to eat... how monotonous. I mean you do those things every day. Of course not, you don't get bored when the things you do align with your highest values and needs.

We get bored because our reason for doing something just isn't high on our values. So basically, a boring life is a life that's currently filled with a lots and lots of activities that are low on your value system. You only have to work 8-10 hours. That leaves another 8 hours that you can either waste with low value activities or fill with high value activities.

Activities are like food. Junk activities are stuff that makes you feel really good but doesn't provide any life nutrition... for example video games and television. There's nothing wrong with chocolate cheesecake and there's nothing wrong with television. But junk activities like junk food, doesn't make you feel good in the long run.

 

[39471]

The good thing about ADD is that it shows me what feels uninteresting pretty quickly, so that should help me hone in on what careers, hobbies, and tasks to develop.

But ADD also shows me the things that are fun but aren't sustainably fun or meaningful. Music, exercise, and fun conversations are excellent for my brain. Sometimes these things help my mind "coast", but they may not be enough to sustain my interest.

I would say look for things that keep your interest and focus for long periods of time. Also, do those things in a way​ that sustain your attention, too, or put the old interests aside to find new ones.

 

[39471]

It's hard to put aside old interests, when I've gotten used to them. The thing is, focusing only on those familiar interests are probably what is holding me back.

 

[unINFalliPle]

Haha, I can so relate to this.

I like what infpblog said. I found writing essays boring. Especially if I just summarized information that was already known or if there was controversy on a subject, and too much information. Also not being interested in the subject. Which often left assignments uncompleted. What got me through this was having to redo these courses. More boredom. But the motivation to end. You know what to do, so just do it.

I'll have plans of things to do. And they'll often stay as plans. Ideas. Need more of the concrete.

I used to view other students in the class room as zombies sometimes. And I didn't like men in suits or having to work. And once in a metro car, I was the only one in a red jacket out of a sea of black and I liked it.

When I had a schedule for school and repeated the same patterns, I would deviate from them. I would get off at a random metro stop and explore the area. I would decide to stop and check a new store. I had little adventures.

After my break up, I feel as though I've been in a rut. And maybe that's been an excuse. Because I have had a lot of free time and I've been bored out of my mind. Free time is freedom and hell. I don't know what to do with it.

If I'm doing choirs, like cleaning my room, washing clothes, dishes, cooking, for some reason it helps to have many things going on at once. So I'm always up on my feet. From one place to the next. And maybe it can burn my bacon sometimes, but it makes things fun. I kind of exercise along with doing things or listen to music. Unless I need focus, the music goes off.

Trying new things is fun too. I like being creative. I've looked up do it yourself projects. I have to do actually do them now. XD Be daring. Explore. There are so many possibilities. The more you see, the less you know. The more you'd like to let it go. From red hot chili peppers song. Can be interpreted many ways. Maybe we're so used to the familiar. But the unknown can be exciting. And whatever you do, try being in that moment. Make it your moment. Not in a full of yourself way. But so that it's not as boring. There is a lot to learn. Wooh, I went off here.

 

[flaring]

I started taking ADHD medication. It's worth looking into.

USA or another Anglo-american country?

 

[Owfin]

I started taking ADHD medication. It's worth looking into.

That's odd, my medication wouldn't do anything for existential boredom. And when I'm off it, I don't get bored any more easily (if anything, slightly less so, if only because I am so absent minded).

Maybe look at things with a different perspective? Find archetypes in the world around you. Look at your daily interactions with people as a chance to better your skills. Listen to people and think of using that conversation in writing. When I am, for example, waiting in line, I do this a lot, and suddenly it's incredibly fascinating and it's almost a shame to have to stop and do what I originally wanted to.

 

[Acey]

That's odd, my medication wouldn't do anything for existential boredom. And when I'm off it, I don't get bored any more easily (if anything, slightly less so, if only because I am so absent minded).

I'm really glad you brought this up. I was reading a post from @SirDave (ISTJ) and I found what he said to be very interesting to me. I was wondering if you could relate? (sirdave I hope you feel alright that I quote you here)

I really never thought much about it. But my first job (well my second) job out of the Marine Corps was the type of job that many would reject or refuse to be put in a positon of experiencing. One job involved a repititive operation that was repeated 3,800 times in an an 8-hour day, a unit in about 8-1/2 seconds. That was the rate of the units coming down the line that had to be modified. I concentrated on optimizing my skills so that I could build up a stockpile so I could do other things.

I never understood complaints about boredom. I hardly know what it is. But that attitude allowed me to become expert at many repetitive tasks; until in less than a year I was calling in the Railroad dispatcher to pick up full cars and deliver in empties, and was asked to get various licenses for heavy lift loaders and transporters, things really beyond my imagination or original intent.

Perhaps we experience boredom in different ways ? Medication helps me do tasks that would otherwise bore me to tears. It's still boring even when I'm on medication, but it's tolerable enough that I can remain focus, and complete it. What would be an activity that you would find boring? Thanks again @SirDave , feel free to contribute!

 

[SirDave]

Things I anticipate as being boring aren't when I get into them. The only thing that quickly comes to mind that I can truly call feeling bored is being in an audience that is being subjected to bad intertainment. That may be because I'm trapped, and unable to go beyond the experience. That particular boredom could be alleviated by borrowing my wife's I-phone and searching the internet. I never went on the internet until 2008, 2 years into my retirement. But escaping ones situation like that is not a legitimate option to relieve boredom, IMO.

Take driving; every year we drive to Florida from Indiana. We stop at the end of the first day after going as far as we can before darkness, which is 660 miles. Absolutely none of that driving is boring. As I drive I am doing mental calculations of our speed in miles per hour, which involves time and odometer checks, or using those speed calculations to predict our next landmark or city. I find pleasure in every bit of it, and there's the stimulation of the approaching scenery, the strategy of the encounter with the psychology of the traffic.

 

[Owfin]

I'm really glad you brought this up. I was reading a post from Sir Dave (ISTJ) and I found what he said to be very interesting to me. I was wondering if you could relate? (sirdave I hope you feel alright that I quote you here)

*quote*

Perhaps we experience boredom in different ways ? Medication helps me do tasks that would otherwise bore me to tears. It's still boring even when I'm on medication, but it's tolerable enough that I can remain focus, and complete it. What would be an activity that you would find boring? Thanks again Sir Dave, feel free to contribute!

Hmm, it's an interesting idea, but I do get bored. I feel bored when I've run out my mental tolerance for something. Doesn't have to be something I dislike. I love meta stuff, but if I seep myself too much into it, it ceases to be interesting. It's usually a sudden point where I just cannot take something anymore. Constantly going out and about is actually boring in the sense that I easily tire of it and become disinterested in a short period of time, despite being enjoyable in small quantities and in other senses being exciting.

Medication allows me to focus on tasks that I want to focus on (not as in "supposed to", want as in "actually desire"). If I haven't taken my meds, it's like the natural human ability to portion out the correct amount of focus on various things is broken and I have to do it on manual, which is extremely tiring and annoying. I have no such issues when I have taken my Concerta as prescribed.