I was camping this weekend so this post will be short.
Being Bored
Camping allows you to be bored. If you don’t have cell service or internet, if like us, you don’t have radio or any kind of entertainment then it’s just sitting there talking and sitting there not talking.
I’m not a fan of sitting and not talking, I’ll admit. But when it happens it’s a test. It’s a test to see what comes up in my mind. Without words to say or listen to and without a phone to check, there’s not much but whatever I can see in nature and my thoughts.
Getting good at being bored is practice for being focused. Because when you are working and you need focus, the same desire for something entertaining comes up as when you are sitting bored in a texas campsite in Llano. If you can “sit with it” as they say, then you get better at sitting with it the next time you fave boredom. You might not like it but you can get comfortable with it and not writhe through it in agony like so many people when they’re stuck somewhere boring without their phone. Stuck at places like trying to do their work.
The Boredom Salon
What if there was a place where you practiced boredom? Like an actual business. You go to the place and they have you put your phone in a box and then you go into a room with nothing to do and you just have to sit there for a while.
And you pay for that privilege?
It’s like a nap room but you can’t sleep. Just let your thoughts come up.
We can help you they say. Having trouble putting your phone down? For just $1 a minute you can come to our place and we’ll give you absolutely nothing.
My Thoughts
First, totally sticky newsready material here. Catchy because ridiculous. Catchy also because it rings true to a need people are all familiar with.
Second, it works. Thoughts really do come up. You do get better “sitting with it”. It’s sort of like meditation but a bit more modern.
Second and a half. Some people would love a time out and if we have to formalize it to a paid business (like bottled water) and that helps people, then great we are providing a service.
Third, I could use it as an offshoot business, the entire purpose is to eventually drive business to some other business of mine. Like the calendars or like the Eureka Room.
Maybe we allow some nice sounds or images to inspire some calm. But nothing happens. People just sit there by themselves (or with others but I think better by themself so they don’t think of others), and be bored.