Comments on: Is There Such A Thing As “Boring” Work?

By: Diary of a Smart Chick » Post Topic » SmartChick at the Blog Carnival: Work

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:48:37 +0000

[...] today’s technology, working after retirement, working for love vs. money and the issue of boring employment. All quite important topics for the working world today I [...]

By: Chris Edgar

Chris Edgar — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:14:06 +0000

Hi Tom — it sounds like you’re doing some powerful work. What I hear you saying is that if you just pay attention to the sensations that come up when you’re doing your taxes or something like that, rather than saying “I shouldn’t be feeling this way” or “I don’t want to be doing this,” you start to get an idea of the perspective those feelings are coming from. This is the way I’ve experienced my work around the kinds of things I don’t want to do as well.

By: Tom Volkar / Delightful Work

Tom Volkar / Delightful Work — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:14:09 +0000

This will be an interesting experiment that I’ll bring to my taxes very soon. Anything that brings us to greater consciousness is powerful. It’s difficult to judge feelings while actually feeling them. I’ve been looking at things I resist lately to see the connection to other things I resist and often it’s that I need to let go of a certain perspective that I’ve had locked onto these items.

“In other words, it’s just a deeply ingrained aspect of how I see myself and the world, and the more conscious I become of that, the less suffering it can cause me.” Powerful stuff Chris, thank you.

By: Real Time Internship News & Information Online.

Real Time Internship News & Information Online. — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:29:43 +0000

18th Career & Internships Carnival Now Online…

Welcome To The 18th EVER Carnival of Internships, Careers, & Employment!
For March 23rd, 2009

*Blogs presented according to subject*

Careers
Nancy Miller presents Skills Necessary for a Career in Photography posted at Photography Colleges.
Cel…

By: Chris Edgar

Chris Edgar — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:19:28 +0000

Hi Albert — thanks for that story. I think it also illustrates how boredom is just a label we put on a set of sensations we’re feeling, and if we remove that negative label and directly experience what’s going on maybe we won’t find it so miserable.

Hi Juliet — yeah, it does seem like this kind of work starts on the surface with concerns about getting more work done or whatever and then takes us deep into ourselves. I hope that exploration has been fun or at least interesting for you.

By: LifeMadeGreat | Juliet

LifeMadeGreat | Juliet — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:50:47 +0000

Hi Chris

Sometimes one has to delve quite deep to find the reasons. I know that, in some cases, it has required a great deal of thought and effort on my part to understand the source of these types of negative emotions and resistances.

Juliet

By: Albert | UrbanMonk.net

Albert | UrbanMonk.net — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:29:58 +0000

Hey Chris! A spiritual teacher I was speaking to asked me a very interesting question. What if the purpose of life is to do whatever you’re doing now? If you’re bored, maybe that’s the fun of life – to experience boredom. We’ve got plenty of time to have perfect eternal peace when we’re dead.

By: Chris Edgar

Chris Edgar — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:16:10 +0000

Thanks Sara. Doing your taxes sounds like a great example of a situation where you can notice what you’re thinking and feeling and learn a lot about yourself. I’ve had similar experiences with filling out insurance documents and paying bills. There’s something deeper going on, in my experience, than just “it sucks to sit here paying bills” — for me it’s a feeling like “why aren’t I doing something with more global significance,” and for someone else it may be different.

Thanks for the site suggestion. I’ve paid her a visit. Best, Chris

By: Chris Edgar

Chris Edgar — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:44:45 +0000

Hi Daphne — the trip sounds exciting to me. It sounds like, by getting bored, you mean feeling like you don’t have a ton of obligations. I think this illustrates how boredom means different things to different people, and it’s less cut and dried than we usually think.

That’s a good point that boredom can stimulate creativity — for me, that brings to mind how, if I’m experiencing writer’s block, that empty feeling that I’m “out of ideas” actually dissolves if I’m willing to just sit with it for a while, rather than trying to force myself to think something up. I wrote some more about this earlier at http://www.purposepowercoaching.com/site/?p=206.

By: Sara

Sara — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:33:20 +0000

Chris — This is a very helpful post, especially since I have do my taxes this weekend and I always dread this process.

I liked your words, “…if we take a moment to sit with the feelings of boredom, anger, or whatever else that come up in our work, and stay curious about what they’re doing there and what they have to teach us, we can transform our relationship with our work.”

That’s a great suggestion for me as I prepare my taxes!

By the way, have you visited Barbara Swafford’s site, Blogging without a Blog? I think you might like it, especially her blog registry!