We all get bored once in a while or feel like we’re stuck in a rut. But what can you do about it? Here are 101 fun everyday things anyone can do to shake things up a bit.
Bored? Stuck in a rut? Daring Adventures for the unadventurous.
There’s no shame in feeling bored. It’s a universal experience almost everyone suffers from in the course of their lives.
What is boredom?
Some of the greatest thinkers in the history of humanity have tried to solve the puzzle of boredom including Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855).
Kierkegaard believed boredom should be avoided at all costs because “boredom was the root of all evil”.
He defined boredom as a sense of emptiness and examines it not as an absence of stimulation but as an absence of meaning.
In other words, boredom isn’t always caused by a lack of things to do. It’s usually a sign of another root problem, which isn’t always easy to describe or identify.
- Sometimes boredom is a fleeting response to a circumstance.
- Sometimes it’s a symptom of your ongoing existential crisis (what does it all mean?).
- Or boredom could be the consequence of unfulfilled aspirations.
If you’re bored with your life, don’t coast through life waiting for life to come to you.
Ask yourself: what is meaningful for you? Find something you’ll love to do and do them with ferocity.
How to eliminate boredom (rotation method)
Søren Kierkegaard’s solution to boredom was the “rotation method”.
He likened his method to crop rotation in agriculture where farmers change the method of cultivation and type of crops rather than “changing the soil.
By constantly rotating from one thing to another, as farmers turn over the soil to cultivate crops, you can avoid the feeling of boredom if done in limitation. This method of rotation promotes going deep with intensity rather than wide.
For example:
- Some companies practise something called “Job Rotation“. It’s a practice where management moves employees between two or more jobs or assignments at regular intervals to reduce the boredom employees experience from doing the same job every day and to explore an employee’s hidden potential.
- Couples often mix things up a bit to keep things exciting.
- If you’re bored cooking the same type of food every day, you might learn to cook different ethnic foods.
- Excercise can get monotonous and boring, mixing in new routines such as yoga, pilates during the week can keep you motivated.
If you’ve ever asked yourself, “why am I so boring?” or wondered “how to be less boring,” you’re not alone. Here is what years of experiments, trial and error have unearthed for me. I hope my story and some of the things I list in this article give you some ideas and help with your particular situation.
Everyday adventure ideas to combat boredom.
Here is a list of 101 simple adventures anyone can do to beat that boredom and get out of your rut.
Food Adventures
- Make your own cheese
- Try a food you’ve never tried before.
- Go mushroom foraging.
- Attend local food, wine or music festivals
- Make your own beer, wine or spiced rum.
- Learn to cook every recipe in your favourite cookbook.
- Learn to sign (ASL or another language)
- Become a connoisseur of wine
- Go vegan once a week or for a week at a time.
- Change your eating habits: detox or fast for 24, 48 or 72 hours drinking only water.
- Make an herb garden.
- Grow your own tomatoes or veggies
- Learn to make sushi.
- Start urban foraging.
- Eat pancakes for dinner and or pizza for breakfast.
Language Adventures
- Teach people English online
- Learn French or another language and then travel to that country.
- Learn to read braille.
- Change careers even if you don’t know what to do.
Activities and Travel Adventures
- Look for a new job (in another country)
- Take a virtual visit: Here is the Chateau Versaille virtual visit
- Apply for citizenship through descent to another country
- Get a second passport.
- Take a train somewhere, anywhere.
- Go glamping or camp in your backyard.
- Travel somewhere where they speak another language.
- Volunteer abroad in exchange for free room and board. Workaway is a good place to start looking.
- Visit a hookah lounge.
- Try geocaching.
- Go to an amusement park or theme park.
- Host a couchsurfer or become a couch surfer
- Go to a new venue: jazz bar, karaoke bar, hookah lounge?
- Go to a museum
- Go to the circus: see the cirque du Soleil.
- Go to a concert, musical or play.
- Take a midnight bike ride with friends or family (bring a flashlight)
- Watch a foreign film in another language you’re learning.
- Learn calligraphy
- Make a bucket list of places you want to visit and a plan to do it.
Craft and Hobby Adventures
- Build something
- Start crafting: Go to Pinterest.com and search for inspiration.
- Learn to weld and make something useful
- Learn to play an instrument (violin, ukelele, guitar, piano)
- Learn to take beautiful pictures
- Learn to sew your own clothes
- learn to crochet or knit
- Learn to play
chess - Learn to play mahjong
- Make a terrarium
Health, Beauty Adventures
- Start a capsule wardrobe in a certain style, preppy, hipster, à la Française?
- Change your look, your haircut, hair colour etc.
- Go to a spa: get a facial or massage.
Fitness Adventures
- Ride your bike to work
- Take up kickboxing, tai chi or karate
- Take up jogging
- Set a workout goal. (lose 10 pounds, 100 pushups, do the splits or a handstand)
- Go to the driving range and hit a bucket of balls
- Learn to meditate (it’s harder than it looks)
- Become certified at yoga, Zumba or scuba diving for the hell of it.
- Learn to dance a certain style (belly dancing, salsa, swing, hip hop)
- Take up hiking
Games, Hobby and Activity Adventures
- Learn to be a better photographer
- Learn to fly a drone
- Become an author: Start writing a book
- Learn to solve a Rubik’s cube
- Throw a video game competition
- learn to identify all the birds in your backyard
- Learn and find constellations like the big dipper
Learning, Education and Personal Development Adventures
- GET TEFL certified and teach English
- Learn to sing.
- Find a cause you’re passionate about and get involved.
- Read the entire Bible or Koran.
- Learn to write with your other hand
- Get a second degree by going to night college or earn it online.
- Make a goal to read more books and leave reviews for others online.
- Become a history buff of anything
- Join a book club
- Learn HTML
- Become an expert at something
Work and Entrepreneurial Adventures
- Become an internet entrepreneur
- Find a mentor to help you do something you want to do.
- Join a mastermind group
- START A BLOG about something you’re passionate about! Like I did.
- Apply for a job in another country
- Take a career break or gap year and do something worthwhile.
Relationship Adventures
- Write a love letter to someone you love
- Call someone you haven’t heard from or spoken to in a while. Maybe plans to meet.
- Send a care package to someone
- Go skinny dipping with someone (or alone)
- Find a penpal and write handwritten letters to each other.
- Plan something special for someone just because
Other Adventures
- Adopt a pet- Rescue a dog or cat from an animal shelter.
- Watch aeroplanes take off and land up close.
- Take a walk through a graveyard at night.
- Carve your names in a tree
- Donate blood
- Get a tattoo, get a French-inspired tattoo.
- Organize and declutter your home: then sell your things at a flea market or garage sale
- Find religion
- Try some Pinterest hacks
- Make an entertaining answering machine message.
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Hi Anne,
I think sports are great because these days many of us tend to have exhausted minds and we just can’t shake it off. When you force yourself out of comfort zone and take a bike ride as you described or learn martial art your mind has an opportunity to rest and you experience something new at the same time. Also people who practice martial arts like karate or boxing tend to become more courageous and are more open to new experience, hence more likely to become adventurous.
Hi Annie
This is the great thing about adventures everybody has their own ideas whether they be big or small high octane or somewhat mundain. If we all had the same ideas wouldn’t life be boring.
Great post thanks lee
This is an awesome list. I also keep one of these on my computer ( I use a lot of them as date ideas).
And also agree with your stating that don’t limit your adventures to the death defying ones! You need fun stuff to do daily that can save you.. The micro adventure a la Alastair Humphrey.
Alex
How about teach a subject you have no clue on? That’s adventurous! It challenges you to think differently and I think friends will get a kick out of watching you struggle. That would be a great theater sports game.
Elmer, what a clever idea. Are you volunteering ? I would love to see my husband or any man teach ladies how to apply apply makeup.
Great list Annie! I’m going to print it out. Better yet, you should make it into a poster :)
I like that idea. Brilliant.
Ah yes, now I understand why you live in the south of France… all the skinnydipping!!
Not yet but it could be in my near future when the weather warms up. But that’s nothing compared to your escapades in a hammock.
Hi Annie,
I am new here and am thrilled by your site. I saw the interesting story you and family had. Will be jumping over to your story immediately after this to find out more.
Love these list of adventures for common folks like us. I am particular excited about your learn to, become a, and go to series of ideas.
In our first house, my wife and I painted our walls Audrey Hepburn theme. Loved it. Our daughter loves dolphin and we will be painting this theme when our new house come along.
Thank you for making life so exciting with such simple adventures in life.
Cheers
Hello there Jimmy,
I am intrigued by the Audrey Hepburn walls you speak about. I love Audrey Hepburn and William Holden too.
Do you have photos?
I love this list! Thank you so much for sharing! I used to be terrified of trying new things because I thought people would think less of me for not being good at something, even on the first try. I am SOOOOOO over that!
One of the ways I became more adventurous in spirit is by doing things like on this list. I would do an activity a month that was outside my comfort zone: take a class because it was offered at a good time, regardless of the subject manner; accept every invitation (if available) to try different experiences; go to an Asian market and buy one thing I couldn’t identify and try it.
This has become a part of me. Last month I joined a book group full of strangers, and this past Friday I took a boxing class for the first time, surrounded by people who obviously did this on a regular basis.
I figure this will attitude will result in a multitude of stories to share at the senior center when I get older.
Thanks again for the list. I must try a few!
Tammy,
It’s so exhilerating to do new things isn’t it. i did the same thing five years ago and started kick boxing with other people who were obviously doing it for years. I was so scared but at the end of the day i was thrilled. it gave me the courage to go out and do more things that made me fearful.