Getting bored

As I was planning my recharge week, I kept telling my friends that I wanted to spend the week “getting bored”. I had the idea that I was going to take the week off, do next to nothing, and just get bored. I would go to parks to relax and read books, maybe go check out a few restaurants, and sleep in.

As I wrap up my recharge week, I’ve actually had the opposite experience. I found that I had too many fun things that I wanted to do. So far this week, I’ve visited an old friend in Petaluma for the day, explored Golden Gate Park and went to the Giants game. I’ve done a lot of reading in parks as well. I’ve had a fantastic week so far.

I didn’t think I would be so excited to just stay in San Francisco for the week largely by myself, but here I am longing for more time to watch a couple more movies, explore another part of the park, and read two more books.

The funny part about this realization is that I had once mentioned that San Francisco is a rather boring city and I even complained that there weren’t that many activities. Well I realized that the city is not the problem, I was the problem.

I think I’ve been so caught up in work and my daily routines that I’ve kind of lost my sense of adventure and spontaneity. I’ve been programmed to work 10+ hours on weekdays and my only leisure has been to go to the gym and workout. I then get to the weekends barely cognitive and I’m operating at 50% speed the entire weekend and often doing next to nothing.

I’ve planned my life around work. This is the opposite of how things should be and probably a big driver of why I pushed myself so close to burnout. Going forward, I need to live more. Getting to the weekend week in and week out barely functioning is not a sustainable practice going forward.