You know who they are and you try to avoid them like the plague, those boring people in your life. Those who smirk at you, or talks excessively about their blank life. Boring people are around everywhere in all shapes and sizes. Heck, I’m probably the most boring person you know.
A co-worker will repeat senseless anecdotes on and on, and you can’t mute their mouth.
It could be a relative who enjoys nothing more than yapping about their mundane adventures of life on auto-play. Yet you respond encouragingly, only as a cue for them to ramble on.
What makes someone boring however, just might be fascinating to someone else. What we all do is “tick” on different interpersonal mental mindsets.
So you need to ask yourself why you’re bored with someone in particular. Do they make you uncomfortable, you don’t like the way they talk, or the way they look.
What Makes Someone Boring
• Negative Ego – The most boring behaviour is someone who’s constantly negative while continuously complaining, talking just about their problems, showing complete disinterest in others
• Trivial – They constantly talk about the past or superficial things, interested in just one topic, while repeating the same stories and jokes over and over
• Low Affection – Shows little enthusiasm, speaks in monotone, very little eye contact, behaves and talks in an inexpressive way
• Tediousness – Talks extremely slow, pauses for long periods of time before responding, taking forever to make their point, while dragging the conversation on
• Too Passive – Having very little to say, never has an opinion, extremely predictable and is likely to agree with whatever everyone is saying
• Self-preoccupied – Usually just talks about themselves, never asking, caring, or listening about the issues of others
• Too Serious – Comes across as extremely dry and serious, rarely smiles, no sense of humour whatsoever, you’ve never seen them laugh
• Easily Distracted – Will do erratic distracting things which interferes with the conversation, gets sidetracked far too easily, while constantly engaging in nonsense or gossip
Boring Walks Of Life
Examining how you react is the first step. If someone just talks too much, the old man with the big ego, or someone remains mute and just scowls, or becomes irritated once their personal lives are questioned.
What you want is to escape or avoid them, but these “bores” are either your coworkers or relatives, and there’s no possible way you can avert them.
Dealing with those who are boring, isn’t an issue which is limited to just one-on-one conversation.
There are the boring bosses, boring meetings and seminars to attend, boring teachers, and boring family events. You can pick your friends but not your relatives.
Ways To Manage Boredom
What needs to be applied are creative ways to fight off these boring people, without appearing rude.
Most will now just ignore you by they being occupied with their smartphones, to avoid any type of human contact, which makes them boring themselves.
The key is to find effective ways of keeping yourself motivated, once you find yourself in the most boring of situations.
So what are the best ways to stay alert, appear you’re interested and interesting, when you’re in boring situations stuck with people who are not exciting.
There are ways to manage yourself when it comes to the worst scenarios imaginable.
Make yourself seemingly appear like you’re paying attention, and you’re intently interested.
Look For Signs
Find something redeeming about that person who’s boring you to death. You might be bored because you just don’t enjoy what that person is talking about, their tone of voice, or their mannerism.
If all possible, attempt to pay closer attention by actively and actually trying to listen to what they’re saying.
Make an effort to find something which intrigues you. Attempt to learn something, anything new you didn’t know before.
Mentally Escape
What you need is to develop a mental escape plan. What you’ve put forth is your best effort to put up with the boredom of listening to this person.
But once you realize there’s absolutely no hope of it turning into anything but another drawn out speech, or another long one sided spiel.
Pay as close attention as possible by allowing your mind to wander off into a more interesting direction, while keeping that “Yes, I’m listening” look, nodding and laughing when appropriate.
The biggest danger of daydreaming is you might actually miss something you needed to hear. So what you need is to check back every once in a while before you drift off again.
Add Your Viewpoint
When listening to someone who perpetually talks and won’t shut up, then look for openings, opportunities to interject to share your own opinion, viewpoint, or observations.
What some will do is drone on endlessly, because they’ve become mindless and are not accustomed to stop talking on their own.
Instead, all you hear is a constant string of “uhh’s,” as they like the sound of their voice and holding the stage.
This also happens when you’re in a meeting, in class, or if someone is lecturing, or at the dinner table. Never be afraid to interfere and breakup the monotony.
Everyone else along with possibly the speaker may actually appreciate the interruption, that someone is paying attention or actually showing some interest.
Motivate Yourself To Not Get Bored
Develop the discipline to have the motivation of doing boring mundane tasks on autopilot, and make it a habit.
What this requires is being able to stick with certain boring tasks, by committing to follow up on your promise to do so.
So if your job is extremely mundane, the only benefit being you’re getting paid for it, then learn to keep your mind occupied and interested, to pass the time away.