Make a Budget

Make a Budget:

Do you have a budget?  Do you know how much money you’ve got coming in?  More importantly, do you know where your money is going?  Most people do not budget their money, and because of it are not able to do nearly as much as they would like to do.  Let’s say you spend $5 on a coffee daily, that’s $155 a month!  Do you know what you could do with an extra $155 a month?  If you budgeted that money and put it in a high yield savings account, then in 5 years you could have a $10k vacation!  How nice would that be?  Make your money count.  Don’t waste it.  Most people waste a good amount of their money on daily “not too expensive” unnecessary or impulse purchases.  Bored?  Do yourself a favor, put together a budget.  It will end your boredom for now, and free you up to do the things you really value and enjoy in the future.

Cook a Meal

Cook a Meal:

Now eating is not the best way to cure boredom.  It will only make you feel less motivated and depressed by all the weight you’ll gain if you turn to food regularly when you’re bored, so that is not what I’m suggesting.  What I am suggesting is that you outside the box.  Discover your inner Chef.  Search around on the internet for recipes for a meal that sounds good that you’ve never tried before.  Or look up alternative recipes to your favorite foods to give it a twist.  Add your own touch to a famous recipe and see if you can’t improve on it.

Additional Ideas:

• Think of a meal that your wife would enjoy and plan a date where get all of the ingredients and get it all set up so that you two can prepare it together.
• Same as above but prepare it while she is out, and surprise her with her favorite dish made by her favorite person with your own personal twist.

Try a New Food

Try a New Food:

Have you ever tried sushi?  Sound gross?  Well, did you know that sushi doesn’t mean raw fish?  Some of the best sushi is all cooked, some sushi rolls are vegetarian, and some are made of fruit.  Open your mind and your mouth and try something new.  You’d be surprised what you like if you just give it a shot.

Pick up Trash

Pick up Trash:

When you’re bored you’ll do anything, right?  No really, this is a great way to get unbored.  Have you ever looked around, saw garbage lying on the ground and it just bugged you?  I mean, it’s such an eyesore.  Well, how about walking around your neighborhood with a garbage bag and picking up some of that trash?  It will not only be rewarding, but it can be fun if you make it.  Challenge yourself.  You might even find some money while you’re at it.  This is a nice service to improve your community, and it sure beats being bored and doing nothing.  You’re actually making a difference.  Set aside a chunk of land, maybe a park, and work in sections.  When you have it all picked up you will feel a great sense of accomplishment and everyone will appreciate your service.  It could even feel so good that you just might have to do it again.  You’ll never know until you try.  Again, it’s better than being bored.

Take it to the next level:

• Make a party out of it!  Really.  Organize a cookout where everyone that picks up trash in the neighborhood has a party afterword and get’s to know each other over some good ol’ grillin’.
• See if you can get a group together to adopt a highway.  Go to your local transportation department and set it up.
• Make a competition out of it.  Give a group of people all the same size garbage bags.  Whoever can fill theirs up the fastest gets some sort of prize.

Go For a Walk

This is one of the more basic ways to get unbored, but don’t overlook it.  Walks can be an amazing time with yourself, a friend, or God’s creation.  If you are bored, the cycle can seem endless.  Get out and go for a walk.  Just the very act of stimulating your senses, sight and smell, while getting your heart pumping with blood and oxygen flowing to your brain, you will more than likely think of something to do while on your walk.  Walks are great for something to do when your bored and helpful to get your mind going so that you’ll find something you want to do after the walk.

Walking with a Purpose:

When you don’t necessarily want to go for a walk in order to find something else to do, walking with a purpose can be a boredom killer in and of itself.  Try these ideas when you’re bored.

• Find a place to take a walk where the view is stunning.  Spend some time walking slowly and taking in the environment.  Smell the smells, see the sights, and listen to the sounds of nature.
• Walk around your neighborhood with the goal of getting to know at least one new neighbor.
• Walk around your neighborhood and pray for each house you walk by.

Puzzles

Puzzles are a great way to get unbored. Dig one out of your closet or go buy a new one. Puzzles are fun, challenging, and time consuming. Puzzles are a great way to “get away”; while you are concentrating on putting the puzzle together you might find yourself enjoying this time with yourself thinking about life and what you want to do with it. A puzzle will get your brain working and put it in problem solving mode, which is an exercise many brains are lacking. This can be fun, and is much more productive for your life than letting your mind go blank and watching T.V. for hours. Puzzles can be even more fun if you call someone up and work on it together, chat, and have some snacks while trying to solve them. If you’re bored and feel like you’ve got nothing to do, give it a try. You will enjoy yourself if you make it fun. Boredom is a choice!

Tips for making it interesting:
• Get a custom made puzzle made from a favorite picture of yours, ex// Family, Friends, Memory, etc.
• If you are married, get one made of a special picture with you and your wife from a meaningful time in your life. Don’t tell her what it is and spend time putting it together with her.
• If you really get into it, work your way up difficulty levels stepping it up a notch each time, shoot for one that seems impossible.

Create S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Boredom can result in a lack of motivation due to a lack of direction.  You might need to read that again.  Okay.  Do you have clear cut goals for your life?  Do you know where you want to be 5, 10, 15, 25, years from now?  Well if you like so many, are wandering around living life aimlessly with no direction of course you are going to be bored.

You might have tried setting goals for yourself before, but failed.  The reasons you might have failed in the past could be that they were too general, they weren't measurable, or attainable, they might not have been relevant to the big picture of where you want to be going in life, or they might not have had a time frame by which you could measure your success or failure by.

One way you can always remember to set smart goals is to remember, S.M.A.R.T. Goals.

S.M.A.R.T. Goals Are:

S)   Specific

M)  Measurable

A)  Attainable

R)  Relevant

T)  Time-Bound