Life Mission Chases Away Boredom

Higher Life Mission -> Goals -> To-Do Lists

When speaking with people who struggle with boredom, I’ve made the connection between boredom and not having higher missions in life. Or else having only one mission part of the time—such as getting good grades in college, but not knowing what to do during college breaks.

A higher life mission is a sort-of bird’s-eye-view of what you want in your life. It could be a life-long mission, or it could be for less time than that. Your mission is best defined in somewhat general terms; but it’s crucial to feel its importance to you in your heart and in your core. It feels like an inspiring fire inside of you.

Once you define your life’s mission, you can easily generate some goals which are part of your mission. In line with your goals comes your daily to-do lists.

Even when you’re not actively working on your to-do lists, when you are tending to responsibilities, or standing in lines, you can be thinking about your mission, your goals, and to-do’s—thus, not being bored.

EXAMPLE:

My friend has a motorcycle which she purchased with the intention of repairing it on her own. She spent many hours working on it, and got it working for a little while. Years later, she hasn’t found the motivation to work on it any more.

She told me that she wants the motivation to work on it again. I explained that perhaps simply having the bike repaired isn’t motivation enough anymore.

I told her that if she had a mission which included a repaired motorcycle, she would likely generate the motivation to work on the motorcycle. For example, if she made it her mission to travel the country via motorcycle, one of her goals would be to repair the motorcycle. On her to-do list beneath her goal of ‘repair motorcycle’ could be every little step that the repair would entail, and could even include the amount of time she would spend per day working on the bike.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE;

One of my big life-long missions is to address everything which gets in my way of having the relationships (including with myself), the business, and simple and organized life I desire. This is no small feat, as it involves being very aware and staying with my pain and struggles; and processing and working through all I need to heal. But in knowing my mission, I am never bored, I am always working on and towards my goals in line with this mission—even if it’s sometimes just planning and sorting ideas in my head when I’m busy with other mundane tasks.

What interests you enough in order for you to declare it as your mission?