How to handle boredom to succeed in your career

Are you fed up with your daily routines and repetitive tasks? Have you ever tried in vain to break the monotony? Do you wonder how to handle boredom to achieve success in your career? Surely many of us have ever faced boredom in both work and life. Especially, people who have a low boredom threshold may feel it so hard to get through their tasks. Though tedium is unavoidable, it does not mean that there is no way to tackle it. We can banish the feeling of boredom once we have a righteous perspective on it. A fresh graduate sent a question to Thay Thich Truc Thai Minh to ask for His advice on how to handle boredom at work definitively.

In His answer, Thay remarks it is common that humans enjoy new things, while old ones may bore us. For instance, we become fed up with old-fashioned clothes that we rejoiced to have at first. When it comes to our job, it highly interests us on the very first days. As time goes by, we tend to get bored with it. Thay concisely analyses the consequences of boredom at work and gives persuasive solutions to the problem.

Consequences of boredom at work

Most of us spend one-third of our day at work so finding joy in our job is pivotal. Therefore, we should grasp the consequences that boredom at work brings about.

Boredom may lead to laziness

Thay warns that because of boredom, one may become lazy. Obviously, we can hardly accomplish what we aim for without hard work and dedication. Thay quotes a famous proverb, “On the way to success, there is no trace of lazy men” to illustrate His point. It will be so dangerous if we let things slide. Lack of efforts drives us to lose motivation and passion in both work and life, hence bad performance. We can hardly succeed if we do everything at a very superficial level.

Inability to be skilled in the job

Thay raises a question that we should take into account, “If you harbour boredom at work while you choose a job as a career for life, how can you succeed? How can you become competent at your job?” In fact, sometimes success seems so unreachable even when we work with enthusiasm, let alone working with boredom. Tediousness prevents us from taking proactive actions to learn new things to enhance knowledge and capability, thereby impeding our progress in our career.

Guidance on how to handle boredom at work

Thay Thich Truc Thai Minh advises all of us to embrace a revolution in ourselves in order to handle boredom at work. So how can we revolutionise ourselves?

Find favourite aspects of your job

Thay reminds us that in essence, almost all jobs are the same. Rarely do we get jobs which give us opportunities for frequent changes. Thay exemplifies the point He makes, “We see that many tasks seem so boring. For example, staff at tollgates have to stay in one spot for hours. Road sweepers must be fed up with cleaning roads day after day. Likewise, a tailor needs to sit constantly at their sewing machine.” From this point of view, Thay encourages us to find joy in our job, “In my opinion, you should embrace a revolution in yourself. Do well contemplate. If you are determined to pursue a lifetime job, you should resort to loving it and finding out favourite aspects of the job that can interest you.”

There's no such thing as a free lunch. Without passion, devotion and dedication to our jobs, success is forever just a dream. Thay adds, “Should we not find an interest in our jobs, we will never succeed. Only when we love our job can we make progress.” Therefore, we should not let the invariable routine of the job demotivate us. Do find the enjoyment in what we engage in.

Making a resolution

Besides loving what you are doing, making a resolution is crucial. “You yourself should find out what to strive for, then make a resolution to become excellent and successful in your field,” says Thay. “Only with such determination and orientation, we can move forward. Otherwise, we will easily become jaded and want to quit the job.” Thay states that Buddhism advises everyone to be diligent. He mentions the Four Right Efforts in Buddhism, “The Buddha taught us to be earnest in avoiding doing evil deeds, eradicating evil deeds, engaging in doing good deeds and nurturing good deeds. We should be diligent and fond of what we do.” Thay once remarked that: “Anyone who does not strive to make progress has lost the value of his life.” He said, “A disabled person like Nick Vujicic (a famous Australian speaker, who was born with tetra-amelia without fully formed limbs), must be much bored with life. Actually, he still tries his best to move forward and creates the value of his life.”

Thay emphasised, “A day that we let things drift aimlessly is a meaningless day.” Those words serve as a reminder that we should treasure every moment to devote energies to our career and life. Hopefully, this article somewhat helps everyone understand how to handle boredom at work. Do not hesitate to start a revolution for yourself. Explore favourite aspects of your job and stay determined to achieve every objective you set.