If you’ve ever been a child (that is, if you can remember back that far), you probably have memories of being bored.

You were bored because life was small and limited, and you were at the whims of your parents and wherever they took you. I remember spending what felt like hours wandering the aisles of the hardware store with my dad, without having the slightest idea of what we were looking for or why we needed to be there in the first place. Worse yet were the trips to the fabric store with my mom: a drab forest of drapes and fabric bolts as far as the eye could see.

In these unpleasant scenarios, I had a choice: I could either continue to suffer, or I could somehow make use of the boredom through thinking, daydreaming, and giving my brain something to do. Without having to consciously choose, I ended up doing the latter. I imagined up stories, fantastical scenarios, and whatever else I could to help pass the time.

I wasn’t an unusual kid in this way. Most kids – when forced to – are pretty good at finding ways to entertain themselves in boring situations. The problem is, kids grow up. And then life becomes a lot less boring.

The Paradox of Adulthood  

When we’re kids there are fewer things to be anxious over. Life is simpler. Put these together, and it’s much easier to be creative. We don’t have to even make a real effort at it.

Then comes adulthood and with it, more freedom and also more responsibility. In many ways, this can feel like a contradiction. It makes a terrible combination for a life of discovery and creativity. If we want to pick up where we left off in childhood, we can’t rely on our parents to throw us in a room alone with a set of paints or a shelf of books. We have to find time amid our busy schedules, free from distractions. We have to do it ourselves.

Anthony Storr, one of the great psychotherapists of the 20th century, noted that “learning, thinking, innovation, and maintaining contact with one’s own inner world are all facilitated by solitude.” ¹There’s just one problem, though. A lot of us dislike solitude. Even if we’re okay with being physically alone, we instinctively turn to our screens or watch TV to give our minds something to do.

In fact, most of the subjects of a 2014 experiment chose to give themselves an electric shock rather than be in solitude for 15 minutes – even when they had previously said they would pay money to avoid being shocked. The lesson here? “The untutored mind does not like to be alone with itself.” ²

If we are never alone with bad thoughts, we can never be alone with good, interesting thoughts, either.

Our busyness as adults, combined with our “freedom” to avoid boring, unstimulating situations, makes it easy for us to never have to be alone with our minds. And certainly, some of our thoughts can be scary and uncomfortable. But if we are never alone with bad thoughts, we can never be alone with good, interesting thoughts, either. We’re not in a position to discover much about ourselves.

How do we “tutor our minds” so we can tap into that inner world and become creative and inventive? Starting isn’t easy, but it is simple:

Pay attention to your thoughts and allow yourself to daydream. 

Daydreaming: An Under-Appreciated Superpower

The word “daydreaming,” for most people, is equivalent to either random mind-wandering or foolish fantasizing. 

Up until the 1970s, psychologists saw daydreaming as unconstructive or worse, destructive. Then along came a man named Jerome L. Singer who took a very different stance. Singer agreed that there are dysfunctional types of daydreaming. But the type that Singer was most interested in is what’s known today as “positive constructive daydreaming,” or PCD.

Unlike obsessive, dark fantasizing or a plain old inability to concentrate at all, PCD is characterized by “playful, wishful imagery, and planful, creative thought.” ³It’s the healthy kind of daydreaming that helps us channel our deepest creative energies. The 18th-century painter Goya recognized this many years earlier when he wrote, “Fantasy abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters; united with her, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of their marvels.” ⁴

Singer describes the positive type of “fantasy” (daydreaming) in his book The Inner World of Daydreaming:

“In general, everyone’s dreams and daydreams evoke the magic of earlier experiences transformed in imagery that only artistically oriented persons are customarily believed to project. In this sense, we all are poets and artists in our fantasies.

“While I am certain that the daydreams or night dreams of a Shakespeare or a James Joyce are far more complex and rich in illusion than those of most people, I would still be willing to argue that many of us come much closer to artistic creativity…than we realize. All it takes is a certain amount of attention for us to become aware of how much is really going on inside ourselves.” ⁵

Have you taken the time to see what’s going on inside yourself?

At first, your thoughts and interests may seem random, romantic, or even outlandish. As you allow yourself to notice your thoughts and ideas, though, you’ll make connections. You’ll start to realize where your interests are.

If you have recurring daydreams about all the possibilities for different cupcake flavors, it may be a sign you need to work toward opening a bakery. You may find yourself continually coming up with ideas for apps, screenplays, or new recipes for next week’s dinner. “Creativity is enhanced when you begin to recognize that many of your fantasies may have relevance to some of the kinds of things that you are interested in doing,” Singer tells us. ⁶

We don’t need to be alone in a sound-proof chamber or in the middle of a forest to be inspired, either. It can be downtime while we wait for a doctor’s appointment, or our car to be fixed. J.K. Rowling came up with the idea for Harry Potter while staring out the window on a train. We don’t need to look for “boring” moments so much as we need to allow them to happen.

Boredom Is Necessary for Creativity 

If we’re never bored or alone with unstructured time on our hands, our thoughts will never have a chance to wander. Our brains won’t have the chance to imagine or create. 

Boredom is not an enjoyable state to be in, nor is its correlative, anxiety. But we have to be willing to face this two-headed beast if we’re ever to create a work of art, solve a scientific problem, or leave any other lasting legacy behind us when we die. Staying busy and distracted right now will keep the monster at bay, but it also ensures our dreams will never see the light of day.

Nietzsche perhaps puts it best: “He who fortifies himself completely against boredom fortifies himself against himself too. He will never drink the most powerful elixir from his own innermost spring.” ⁷

Don’t be afraid to be alone with your thoughts and see what creative paths they lead you down. Find out what’s going on inside yourself. Create the conditions for it if you have to.

Don’t fortify yourself against boredom. 

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Read Next: Is It Good to Be Alone? The Paradox of Solitude →

1. Storr, A. (2015). Solitude: A Return to the Self. Free Press.
2. Wilson, T. D., Reinhard, D. A., Westgate, E. C., Gilbert, D. T., Ellerbeck, N., Hahn, C., Brown, C. L., & Shaked, A. (2014). Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind. Science, 345(6192), 75-77. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1250830
3. McMillan, R. L., Kaufman, S. B., & Singer, J. L. (2013). Ode to Positive Constructive Daydreaming. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 626. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00626
4. Francisco Goya, Los Caprichos, #43
5. Singer, J. L. (1975). The Inner World of Daydreaming. Harper & Row.
6. Kaufman, S. B. (2013, December 10). Conversation on Daydreaming with Jerome L. Singer. Scientific American Blog Network. Retrieved from https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/conversation-on-daydreaming-with-jerome-l-singer/
7. Nietzsche, F. (2017). Human, All Too Human. Delphi Classics (Parts Edition).