How do you overcome these kind of thoughts?

Well, you’re right: there is no guarantee that the first time you do something that you’ll definitely succeed. But if it’s the first time you’re doing something, isn’t it a bit of a big ask to expect yourself to get it right first time?

When a baby is learning to walk, does it just start walking smoothly straight away? No! A baby allows itself to try, try and try again. It learns from the early wobbles; learns ho to adjust and re-balance until after practising for a while, despite all the early wobbles and falls eventually a baby learns to walk – and even run! Failure isn’t a problem; failure is literally part of the learning process. Failure is part of the process of becoming a success.

What is failure really? It’s just the wobbles at the beginning of your learning process as you learn to walk this new path. Once you start TRYING, only then can you get a feel for how to course-correct, but you have to start if you want to succeed.

If you don’t even try, you can never succeed. Sure, you’ll be safe in that you don’t experience failure in that field… But if you don’t even try going for your dream, what will you be doing instead? Something you don’t really want to do? And you’ll always have that “What if…?” hanging over you? What’s the point in that when you can try to do something you REALLY want to do?

If you try following your dream, you may not succeed right away, but the more you practise and go for it and persist – the further along you are on your journey towards success, and the more likely you are to succeed. With every attempt you grow wiser and learn more and more. If you’re committed and determined, you will see success eventually – it’s just a matter of time. Look for a way until you find a way.

Put aside all your limiting beliefs, and put aside all the things nay-sayers are saying – don’t listen to them. Just say: “I don’t care what anyone says, I’m gonna do this; I’m gonna figure it out; I know that there’s a way to figure it out”.

Just decide: I don’t care how many times I fail before I succeed – I’m gonna do this.

Success is slowly moving towards something that we really want and love. So choose what you want and start moving towards it!

References
What if I fail? by Aaron Anastasi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7g3EqRmyyg

But there’s a big difference between a desire, a hope, or a dream to do something, and really doing something. And the difference is wanting something enough to feel ready to take action.

Whatever your dream is, the starting point of how to begin the journey of making that dream into a reality all starts from the same place: It comes from a decision to just go for it.

So how do you start following your dream?
Go all in. Make that commitment to yourself and say: Yes! I am just going to do this! I’m going to take action and take the first step in the direction of this dream. Even if it is the first step of many many steps, every journey starts with a single step.

If you’ve learned how to swim and always look up at the high diving board dreaming of what it would be like to jump off it; stop overthinking it and just go for it! You’ve climbed up the high diving board and looked off the edge of it, wondering if you should jump or not for long enough. Just jump. You know how to swim; you have and know everything you need to know in order to survive the jump. So allow yourself to enjoy the exhilaration of doing something exciting that makes you feel alive and brave. Allow yourself to make your dreams come true. Allow yourself to just go for it!

References:
“All in” video by Aaron Anastasi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8q2eEAeFmM

What to do when bored

If you’re feeling bored and wondering what kind of stuff to do to get you back to feeling happy and interested, here is a list of 133 ideas for stuff to do when you’re bored.

If you have any suggestions to add please leave them in the comments section at the end of this article.

Ideas for USEFUL things to do when bored

If you’ve got some spare time and don’t know what to do, how about using that time to make a bit of extra cash by writing articles online for money. You don’t have to have an English degree or experience to write a fun article that other people will enjoy reading.

You can write about your recommendations for books, movies, recipes or anything you’re interested in. You can write about your favorite quotes or about what inspires you in life. You can write about absolutely anything that you like, as long as it’s fun! Have fun writing about it, expressing your opinion and expressing yourself and in the meantime you can even earn some money for this!

One great place to write for money is Squidoo, which pay you between a few pennies to over $15 a month per article. Earnings depend on how many people read your article and how many people buy items you recommend within the article via your affiliate links. But it’s definitely a great way to earn whilst having fun. To join Squidoo and start writing articles today click here.

If you have an idea for a cool website, start making it now!

Ideas for websites can vary hugely but here are a few ideas to get your thoughts going:
- personal blog about your life
- poetry blog
- baking blog about your cooking adventures
- cool places to visit in your city, reviewing all the places & restaurants you’ve been to
- games review blog about computer games or other games
- a “how to” blog about how to do something you love doing eg knitting, gardening etc
- a personal development blog
- a “fun finds from around the web” blog
- a fashion blog
- a movie review blog

If your site is successful, it can be another stream of income! Add Adsense adverts to it and a few affiliate links, and start earning right away!

If you like drawing, why not spend your bored time drawing, and whilst you’re at it, earn some money from it the same time! There are a few ways to earn from drawing:

a.) Zazzle:
The website Zazzle lets you sell your artwork as posters and postcards and also they let you put your art on a HUGE number of other products ranging from T-shirts, mugs, kitchen towels, clocks to even iphone cases and mousepads.

b.) Cafepress:
Cafepress is another great website, very much like Zazzle where anyone can sell their artwork.

c.) Spreadshirt:
Spreadshirt is yet another neat place to put your artwork on T-shirts and other products.

If you enjoy making crafts and doing stuff like crocheting, knitting, carving, embroidering, jewelry-making, candle-making, soap-making, sewing etc etc, then you can do all these things when bored, and if the thought of amassing a ton of crafts at home doesn’t appeal, then you can sell them on sites like Etsy. You find things to do when bored AND make money off it! Win win!

A useful way to spend your time when you’re bored is to think up potential business ideas that would be fun to work on and useful to the world. Even if it’s just a thought exercise, it could be enjoyable coming up with ideas, and there’s always the chance that one of the ideas you come up with will be the next BIG idea that could make you a millionaire!

Get deep. Ask Google about the meaning of life and purpose. Start to understand these things better by reading and hearing what others have had to say about it.

Have you ever tried reading a personal development book or a book that’s aimed at broadening your spiritual side? If you’re bored, now might be a good time to give it a try! Some amazing books I personally recommend (I’ve read and loved them all!) are found here.

If you’ve got a kitchen at your disposal and you’re bored, you can use the opportunity to teach yourself to cook a new dish.

Find a recipe that sounds interesting online or in a cookbook if you have one handy. Maybe go for something you’ve never heard of before like Afghani food or a Peruvian dish, just to be adventurous! Or try and make something sweet and fun like ice cream, cookies, cakes, or raw chocolate (mm!). Go to the supermarket to get the ingredients and have a ball in the kitchen being creative! It doesn’t matter how it turns out – it’s the journey that counts! Plus if the best happens, you’ll discover a new skill, a new dish AND make yourself something to eat all at the same time!

Why not throw ingredients together and try to invent a brand new culinary dish? You may discover the next big thing since the potato chip! Yum!

Because cheese is tasty and you can always learn a new skill! Plus when you make stuff yourself, it sometimes comes out more tasty than in the shops! And it can be a new hobby that produces a useful byproduct!

If you really enjoy it and invent some new amazing type of cheese you could even sell it and make some profits off this hobby.

If you’re of legal age to drink, you can have fun inventing cocktails and if you’re not allowed to drink yet, you could always play around with different juices and drinks to create a unique mocktail!

Another fun ideas is to learn how to make beer and other alcoholic beverages.

If you go on Amazon, you’ll find a lot of cheap instruments there that you can buy without giving it too much thought. I myself bought a ukulele off Amazon for less than $30! Here are a few examples of affordable and fun instruments you can try to teach yourself: (You can click on any of them to see them in more detail)

Once you have the instrument at home, the next time you’re bored, you can pick it up and play around with it. There are LOADS of youtube videos you can use to teach yourself how to play the instrument from being a complete beginner so that you teach yourself to play, and you can also go to the library and get a book explaining more about how to perfect your technique.

Until your keyboard arrives, you can play around on this virtual piano.

If you’re bored, now’s a good time to read up on anything you’ve been curious about. There are lots of great websites explaining all sorts of interesting things about stuff we really should know, like the website saywhydoi.com which explains stuff like why tennis players wear white, why we sometimes have salty food cravings, why we say phrases like eat your heart out and why we clap to praise a performance. Interesting stuff!

Of course Wikipedia is another great site to fill in some gaps of knowledge about stuff. And if you find yourself reading a Wikipedia article and notice it is missing in details that you know on the subject, you can update the Wikipedia page and help others learn too.

If you’re interested in something specific, be it physics or health, travel or gardening, photography or history, stamp collection or economics – if you’re bored, now’s the time to read up on that too. If it’s something practical like photography or learning a certain craft, do it!

Some ideas for things you may be interested in teaching yourself:
Film making, animation, history, geography, science, eocnomics, music, art, business, investment, how to code and program, how to use Linux, how to use a certain computer program that you haven’t gotten round to figuring out yet (eg figuring out what all the buttons do on Excel or Word or a paint program, or learning the keyboard shortcuts for things), photography, nutrition, how stuff works, why things are as they are, how to knit, how to craft, how to juggle

If you’ve always wanted to learn how to make movies, you can start with making youtube videos. You may want to go for a vlog type thing, which can be like training you to be a presenter one day, or you may want to get a few friends together, write a script and make a short film together. If you’re a budding animator, you can create an animation or if you’re a musician you can share your songs on youtube too.

Another good thing about youtube is that if you get a lot of views on your videos you can make money from making fun stuff on there!

When you’re bored, now’s the opportunity to tidy your room or maybe just your desk, clean the car, tidy up the basement, sort out that drawer or cupboard, or organize your bag. It’s a good time to rake up the leaves, sort out the garden and wash the dishes. You know you’ll feel better doing *something* rather than nothing.. Plus you’ll end up enjoying your new tidy space and have less work to do later when you’d rather be doing other things!

When you’re cleaning up, especially with garages and basements, you tend to find a bunch of stuff that you can donate to a good cause, or you could always sell stuff on eBay and make some extra cash.

How about using your time to create a piece of writing? Who knows, you may be the next great author, poet or script-writer! Everyone’s got to start somewhere! Maybe you start right here, from a place where you were bored and wondering what to do!

It can also be fun to get together with friends and brainstorm ideas together for stories.

A good thing to do when you’re feeling bored is to use the time productively to keep a healthy body by working out. You can go to the gym or you can do your own workout at home. Some workout DVDs can be really helpful and fun. I especially like the dancey ones. Here are a few good ones that are available on Amazon.com:

You can also experiment with lots of other work-out and exercise methods from yoga to pilates to dance. You can get DVDs on all of these or you can use your time to scout out a good class you can go to later.

Use the chance of having some quiet time to yourself to get in touch with your spiritual side. Relax, close your eyes and observe your breaths. Empty your mind of thought and just let yourself enjoy the peace. Enjoy the feeling of feeling good.

If you know what you want, organize your desires into something you can look at to remind yourself and keep you on track. There are a lot of ways you can organize your goals:

- Write a goals list of all the things you want to achieve
- Create a vision board which is when you cut out pictures from magazines of all the things you want to achieve
- Write a bucket list of all the things you want to do and see before you die

Buy low sell high isn’t just the mantra of the stock market – it also applies to making money on eBay. If you’re bored, it can be a good time to add another stream of income by getting started on eBay. Scout out good bargains, buy them, and sell them for what they’re really worth.

Have you got piles of unorganized photos sitting around your house or on your computer? How about organizing them into an easy-to-browse format?

You can organize photos into albums arranged by date or by occasion.
You can create online albums with folders.
You can use scrapbooking techniques to create a really pretty scrapbook album with your images.

You can take the opportunity to use the time constructively to put your computer files in neat categories and subcategories to make things easier to find. Delete old stuff you don’t need. You’ll thank yourself later for it!

Whether you know how to program and app or not, now could be the time to start looking into how to build one, if it’s something that peaks your interest. Read up on how to make an App, think up cool app ideas and build one! This 12 year old (click link to see) did just that, so you can too!

It may be yet another stream of income for you if it’s successful!

Find out what’s going on in the world. If regular news isn’t your style, then catch up on celebrity gossip, sports news, new games releases, movie releases or whatever you *are* interested in.

Look into volunteering opportunities with charities and other good causes. There are so many kinds of volunteer work you can do ranging from:
- Working on helping animals
- Helping kids
- Helping the beauify and preserve the environment
- Helping set up resources of the homeless
- Helping people find their feet after they’ve beene in difficult situations
- Helping spread awareness for a certain cause
- Helping stand up for certain rights

If you have stuff that’s been on your mind and has been bothering you, a good way to sort it out and “get it out” of your system is to write it out in a “Dear Diary” journal setting. It can feel like a relief to express it. If you can, try and reframe the issue in a positive light and write yourself into a better place so that you come out of it feeling better or at least hopeful.

Start with 10 things, and notice how you feel a bit better after writing this list!

See how many more things you can come up with! I bet there are a lot!

Plant flowers, herbs, vegetables or even a fruit tree. Spend time in the garden nurturing your plants and enjoy seeing them grow. It’ll be worth it when they bear flowers, herbs, vegetables and fruits that you can enjoy and eat!

If you don’t have a garden, you can still grow things in pots at home or on the windowsill.

Get some language books and CDs out of the library, use the internet and teach yourself a language you’ve always wanted to learn.

Maybe you want to learn a more unusual language like sign language or morse code.

It’s always a good idea to back-up your computer files onto an external hard-drive or onto some other backup service. If you’re bored, why not use the time to secure your files?

Do a virus scan just to make sure everything is ok.
Update all the stuff that needs updating eg virus checker and firewall.
Delete any junk you don’t need.
De-frag if necessary.
Change your desktop picture.
Customize your desktop options and color settings.

Use your time to pamper your nails and get ‘em looking pretty!

Alternatively, give someone else a mani / pedi!

It’s useful to have it up to date.

Ideas for FUN stuff to do when you’re bored

If you don’t feel like reading a useful book like an educational book or one on personal development, read a fun book. Whether you love romance novels, fantasy and science fiction or anything else, a book is a great way to get you out of boredom.

Here are a few of my personal recommendations for great books that I’ve really enjoyed in the past:

• The Kingkiller Trilogy by Patrick Rothfuss
• Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon
• Mitch Albom books like The Five People you Meet in Heaven
• The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
• Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon
• True Story Swear to God by Tom Beland

There are so many great movies out there. When you’re bored you can re-watch an old movie that you know you love; see what’s on TV right now and see if there’s something interesting; visit the video store and rent a DVD or go to the cinema to watch a new release whilst munching on some popcorn.

You could even do a movie marathon, watching back to back movies. This works especially well for trilogies (like Back to the Future and Lord of the Rings) and other movie with sequels (eg Xmen, Harry Potter etc).

Here are a few of my personal movie recommendations for a rainy day when I’m bored. I could re-watch these over and over again and still enjoy them!

• Back to the Future trilogy
• Big
• My Big Fat Greek Wedding
• Disney classics like The Lion King & Beauty and the Beast
• Pixar classics like Toy Story and Monsters Inc

A fun thing to do when bored is to catch up on some TV. Catch up on the series you love, start watching a new one, or if you’re in a more educational mood, watch a documentary.

Get some friends or family together and play a game.

Or if you’re on your own, you can always play an online game. There are loads of fun ones that are great at boredom busting! Just search google and you’ll find a bunch.

Here are just a few games ideas to get your started:

Games to play with other people:
Chess, checkers, backgammon, boggle, apples to apples, general knowledge, pictionary, charades, pub quizzes, trivial pursuit, monopoly, downfall, jenga, battleships, card games, marbles, dominoes, pogs, french skipping, cat’s cradle, clapping games, tag, stuck in the mud, British bulldog, blindman’s buff, what’s the time Mr Wolf, Simon says, acting games (get a book with some suggestions, they’re REALLY fun!), dungeons and dragons, role playing games, Risk,

Games to play on your own:
crosswords, sudoku, word games like “word hero” or word search, isketch, online trivia games (eg triviador), solitaire, minesweeper, online card games, skip rope, skip-it, take the typing speed test, online Risk and other Games by Email

There are tons of great computer games ranging from puzzle-games to racing games, to adventure games. Here are some of my personal favorites that I would heartily recommend for a rainy day:

Also: Day of the Tentacle, Heavy Rain, Monkey Island, Portal 2, Grim Fandango…

Again, you can get a few friends together and play a sport together. Anything you like, from shooting hoops to football and everything in between. Here are a few ideas for stuff you can play:
- Basketball – Soccer – Football – Badminton – Tennis – Baseball practice – Dodge ball – play catch – frisbee – running contests – ping pong – darts – bowling – hockey – ice skating – skating – roller blading – cycling – go mountain climbing

Take the opportunity to get in touch with your creative side. Draw a cartoon, sketch a still life in your room, draw a self-portrait. Experiment with pencil drawings, colored pencils, pen and ink, paint, watercolor, charcoal, pastels, collage – anything that takes your fancy!

If you have some clay handy or a crafts shop nearby where you can get some, play around with sculpting.

If you have some crafts you can play with, do that. Some ideas to get you started:
Quilting, batik, tie dye, sewing, knitting, crochet, scapbooking, jewelry-making, soap-making, sand art in jars, candle-making, badge-making, plush-toy-making, painting pebbles (making rock creatures) etc

If you already know how to play an instrument, take this opportunity to practice playing. Practice a piece you already know, try learning a new one, try figuring out a piece by ear even if you don’t have the notes, make up a new composition and record it, make up lyrics and sing along to your new composition. Or you can take an old tune and make up new lyrics to it just for fun, making a parody song.

If you’re a dab hand at music editing with some music software, you can play around with taking old songs and video sound clips and remixing them or adding all sorts of cool effects to them.

If you’ve got some friends who also play instruments, get together for a jamming session. If you enjoy it, maybe you guys could start a band and be the next big thing! If nothing else, at least it will be fun!

Listen to music that you already love. Dance around your room whilst listening to it. Sing into your hairbrush.

Go to spotify, youtube or last.fm and listen to “related artists” or “recommended artists” that you’ve never heard of. Discover new bands and musicians that you love yet never knew until now!

Check out when the bands you like are performing in your area. Book tickets!

There are a lot of great podcasts and radio shows to keep you entertained while you’re doing other stuff that doesn’t occupy the mind too much (eg cleaning, cooking, knitting, crafting).

One of my personal favorite podcasts is WTF with Marc Maron. If you’re interested in life stories of people in comedy, films and music – check it out!

Talk radio is also entertaining. Some of my personal recommendations:
- The Chris Moyles Show
- The Late Show with Joanne Good

Go to a “what’s on in my city” website and see if there are any cool events happening right now or in the coming days that you want to go to.

If you’ve always wanted to learn to dance or you’ve always been curious about trying out pottery or metal work, horse riding or programming – or whatever else sounds interesting to you – search online to see if there are any classes in your area for that thing you’ve always wanted to try. Do it!

Maybe there’s a cool musical on or a great photography exhibit on that you can go and see.

Make your day’s mission to do as many good deeds and random acts of kindness as you can. Go around looking for people you can help and be kind to. Examples of things you can do:
- Smile at a stranger
- Offer as many hugs and kisses to your loved ones as appropriate
- Let someone go ahead of you in a queue or when driving
- Write a list of 10 things you love about a person, then give it to them
- Hold the door open for someone
- Surprise someone you love with a little gift for no good reason other than because you love them
- Help someone by helping them with their chores
- Leave an uplifting message or quote in a book in the library or bookshop
- Recommend a friend’s work to others to help them spread the word
- Buy a homeless guy something to eat or drink
- Remember to say thank you
- When you find something to compliment, let the person know!
- Pick up some litter
- Say “good morning!” / “good evening!” to a stranger
- Donate some of your things to charity
- Offer someone to drive them or accompany them if they need to go somewhere
- Visit a friend or family member who’s down and needs support
- Offer your seat to someone on the train

If you love travelling, how about using your free time to plan your next vacation? Scout out countries, cities and villages you want to visit, find the perfect hotel, modes of transportation, sites you want to see and create an organized document with all the details. If you organize it well ahead of time, you can find some really good bargains in flight prices and hotel bookings, so why not do it now?

Use your imagination and creativity to invent a new game. It can be anything from a thought-game like “I spy with my little eye”, to a card game or a board game – anything!

If you come up with something good, maybe you could even sell it and make some good money off it!

If you have your own pet, go and spend some time playing with him / her.

If you don’t have your own pet, visit a friend, neighbour or relative who has one and play with them. Offer to walk them so you can play with them outside.

If you don’t know anyone with a pet, you can always go to a pet shop and see the cute animals there.

Get an origami book from the library and make cool stuff! Give them to people you love to bring a smile to their face.

Find a jigsaw puzzle to put together. If you’re up for the challenge how about doing a 3D one?

Here are some great 3D puzzles that can be loads of fun!

There are loads of awesome youtube videos to help keep boredom at bay.

Check this article out for a bunch of feel good videos: Feel Good Videos

Other neat youtube channels I’d recommend are:
- charlieissocoollike
- chewingsand
- communitychannel
- communitychannel
- crabstickz
- crashbandadam
- danrezler
- elmify
- evmoneyTV
- jennamarbles
- Jim Chapman
- itswaypastmybedtime
- keeporjot
- myharto
- simonscat
- sxephil
- Tanya Burr
- vlogbrothers
- wheezywaiter
- Zoella

StumbleUpon is a great tool to offer you random, funny, interesting and cool websites, videos and pictures online. Check it out here.

Similar to StumbleUpon, Reddit collects some of the most interesting things on the web plus there’s a community that chat about their finds. It can be a fun place to hang out: Check it out here

Pinterest is more geared towards pretty and funny pictures than most things and it can be a great place to see cool things and get inspired.
Check it out here

Ideas for PEOPLE oriented stuff to do when you’re feeling bored

Have fun catching up with someone about anything. Tell each other jokes, talk about your dreams, talk about your plans for the week, play a game on the phone. There are lots of ways to alleviate boredom when you’re with another person, even if they are on the phone!

Sign into skype, windows live messenger (msn), facebook chat, icq, your blackberry, phone, or whatever tool you use to chat to people through text chat. See who’s around and start chatting! Maybe it’s an opportunity to say hi to someone you haven’t chatted with for a looooong time!

Start typing an email to someone. It doesn’t matter what you write to them about, you’ll find something, even if it’s just asking THEM a bunch of questions! When you feel like you have nothing much to tell someone in an email, I find it really helpful to start asking them questions and then you’ll find that your own stories pop up in relation to the questions so that you can share a few of the good ones in the email.

It can be fun to browse through your friends list on facebook or your contact list in your email program and pick a person to write to who you haven’t written to or heard from in ages but you’re curious about how they’re doing. Take the plunge. Rekindle the tie! Email them!

Find a forum where people are talking about stuff that interests you, be it celebrity gossip, sports, personal development, making your own beer or anything else. Reading the threads on forums can be fun and give you some ideas for stuff to do, and adding your two cents to answer people’s questions or to comment on people’s thoughts can be fun too!

Two heads are better than one, and more heads are sometimes better than two! So get some friends to come round, or go to their place, or meet up somewhere outside and hang out together.

Invite a friend over to cook or bake. It can be more fun to do it together than alone!

If you’re single and have been meaning to find a partner for a while, you can use your moment of boredom to do something about it. Sign up to a dating website like:
- okcupid
- eharmony
- plenty of fish
It can be fun browsing profiles and reading about how people describe themselves.
Some of these websites have an instant messaging tool which allows you to start chatting to people right away.

If you’re looking for a penpal there are loads of penpal websites out there to meet people from exotic countries. Some sites you can use are:
- Penpal International
- Interpals

If you’re looking to meet new people, sign up to meetup.com and see what kind of meet-ups are going on right now where you can meet like-minded people who like the same kind of things you’re into.

Go to a cafe, a park or anywhere where there are people and observe these creatures in the wild! How do people behave towards one another? Listen to how they talk to one another: their tone of voice, their words. What kind of vibes do you get off different people? Which people would you consider going up to and saying hello to in different circumstances? What makes them look friendlier or less friendly? Look at body language clues, look at their faces and what stories they tell.

I know your parents told you not to talk to strangers, and usually this is good advice. But if you’re old enough and are a good judge of character, it can be fun to get to know another human being. If you see someone sitting on a park bench, just relaxing, how about saying hello? Or if you’re using your day to go exploring and are on a bus or on a train, you can always smile at someone and start a conversation. I know a few people who met their romantic partners by doing just this!

With a friend, go people watching and rate the passers by with points for different things:
- Score for friendliness
- Score for attractiveness
etc

Ok, admittedly, any “people rating” is a bit judgy and not exactly spiritually enlightening, but it can be a fun way to get to know your friends’ romantic tastes or just can show you the world through another person’s eyes.

Fun things to reminisce about with friends:

- Favorite memories with family from your childhood
- Favorite games and toys to play with when you were a kid
- Favorite TV programs from when you were a child
- Funniest things that happened in school ; funniest teacher
- Craziest things that happened in school; craziest teacher
- Greatest birthday parties you’ve been to / had
- Best vacation you’ve had
- Funny adverts that used to be on TV

Any excuse is a good excuse for a party, so why not let boredom be your excuse! Use your time to think up a party theme, things to do in the party, who you’ll invite etc, and plan the best party ever! It can be fun just to plan it, and then you can put the plan into action whenever you like, be it that very evening, the following week, or the next time an occasion arises. It’s never too early to start planning what you’d like to do for a birthday party!

Just for the fun of it, decide to throw a fireworks party. Go to the shop to get some fireworks, invite some friends over, and prepare a small party for them.

Ideas for PLACES to go to when you’re bored

Put your shoes on and get some air. Go for a walk around the block; the exercise will be good for you and maybe whilst you’re out there enjoying the fresh air, some inspiration will come to you about what you feel like doing next.

For some ideas for where to go for walks check out this article: Places to go for a walk

How well do you know your neighbourhood? If you think there are areas of it that you haven’t explored, maybe now’s the opportunity!

If you know your area really well, then you can travel out to a new area you haven’t seen and go exploring there. It can be fun to see a new area, see the architecture there, discover new shops, restaurants, markets, cute squares, pretty gardens and all sorts of hidden gems.

Next time your friends want to go somewhere new, you’ll have a few new places up your sleeve!

If there’s a beach near you, it may be fun to go there to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of the beach. Do some people watching, maybe bring a book with you. If it’s warm, you could go for a dip in the ocean.

Go swimming. Try doing handstands underwater. See how many laps you can do. Teach a little kid how to dive.

If there’s a “pick your own” farm in your area, it can be a fun day’s activity to go there and pick your own fruit and vegetables.

Even if there isn’t a pick your own farm near you, maybe there’s a wild blackberry patch where you can go fruit-picking.

Lots of museums have free entry and exhibits so this can be a good way to spend some idle time. You may discover a new passion for certain ancient languages and cultures, for science, natural history, aviation, space or for whatever the museum specializes in.

Like museums, some art galleries are free to visit, and it can be inspiring to see beautiful paintings. It can make you feel uplifted when you see beautiful art, or it can inspire you to want to have a go and paint something yourself.

You can go to a local park if you live in a city, or even a National Park if you feel like going somewhere bigger, to enjoy nature.

If you’re a kid, then going to a playground when you’re bored is a good option.

If you’re a grown-up, find a playground that’s empty and pretend you’re a kid again!

This is sure to wipe boredom away!

Go to an arcade by yourself or with friends. There are loads of fun games there like:
- Air hockey
- Shooting hoops for a prize
- Dance machines (DDRs)
- Car racing machines
- Pin ball machines
- Foosball
- Snooker / Billiards
- Arcade game machines

Check out your local bowling alleys. Practice on your own or get some friends together for a bowling game.

Take your bike around the block, or to ride around a nearby park. Enjoy the wind in your hair and the fresh air.

Now’s a good time to get anything you’ve been meaning to get. Maybe it’s new clothes, new bag, a new book, a new toy or even just a stop by the supermarket.

If you don’t feel like going out to shop, you can also browse some online shops for cool stuff. You can even make your own cool personalized products on Zazzle.com

Go past your favorite shops just to see what cool stuff is out there. You don’t have to buy them to have fun. Seeing them and maybe playing with some of the sample copies can be just as fun too!

Check out all the comics you haven’t read before. Stick around and read some in the store.

If you need recommendations for comic books for girls, check out this link: Comics for Girls

Head over to the library and pick out some new books to read. Maybe try a new kind of book that you’ve never tried before.

A day at the zoo or at the farm, seeing the animals can be loads of fun!

If there’s a pet shop near where you live, a fun activity can be to go there and see all the cute animals. If the pet shop owner is nice, they may even let you pet a few!

Try on all sorts of funny costumes just for the fun of it!

Pretend you have a fancy function to go to or that you’re getting married and go to a fancy dress shop or bridal shop just to enjoy trying on the beautiful dresses. Feel like a princess for a day!

Bring a bunch of bread with you and have fun feeding the ducks and geese. Watch how they enjoy the feast you’re giving them.

You could also do this with pigeons if that’s easier to find.

Another similar fun thing to do is to set up a bird feeder in your garden, fill it with peanuts or bird seeds and watch the birds delight in your gift to them.

Go to an open space like a park and go kite flying! Watch it soar!

- TV or movie studio tour
- Chocolate factory tour
- Cheese factory tour
- Fire station tour
- Money minting tour
- Police station tour
- Wine making tour
- Coffee making tour
- Farm tour

Ideas for SILLY things to do when bored

You can also try making beats and rhythms with your hands and other body parts!

Another memory game can be to try and memorize a deck of cards in order. How many can you remember the first time you try? What about the second time?

You can play this with a friend: the person who remembers the most things wins.

If you enjoy this, maybe you have a future as a make-up artist!

You can do this on your own with the help of youtube videos to help you get the accent right, or with friends.

If you’re with another person, see who can go the longest when you look into each others eyes. Who looks away first? Side note: psychologically speaking, the person who looks away first is the “least dominant” of the two!

If you enjoy this you may enjoy Cosplay!

You can experiment with different hair colors, styles and looks. Buy a bunch of hair products and see what you can do with them. Straighten, curl, braid, tease and style!

You can play with your own hair or with others if they’re up for it!

Can you make other paper flying machines? How about a paper helicopter? a parachute for a toy soldier? Or a paper hot air balloon?

The idea is to have a bottle of water, and pour it into your mouth WITHOUT letting the top of the bottle touch your lips. You leave the bottle top in the air, hovering a couple inches about your mouth and catch the water in your mouth. It’s super satisfying when you do it!

Look for “magic eye” illusions and try and see them.

Go to a restaurant and order something you’ve never tried.

The internet is full of fun personality quizzes that tell you a little about your personality. Here are a few to get you started:
- helloquizzy
- okcupid quizzes
- Quibblo
- Silly quizzes on The Oatmeal

Some competitions are just a matter of sending in your answer on a postcard or via email or text. Other competitions are more involved where you have to enter a painting, photograph or a piece of writing or something like that. Have a go!

Got any more ideas? Let us know!

Leave a comment below with your comments and ideas for more fun stuff to do when you’re bored.

It’s very common to hear people waking up in a toasty, warm bed, pulling the covers over their head and saying “I don’t want to wake up! I don’t want to leave this bed!”

It’s true that this could be simply because of the joy of feeling cosy, comfortable and relaxed all snuggled up under your duvet and wanting to prolong that delicious feeling for as long as possible, but for some it may come from another origin: not knowing why to get up in the morning. For these people, they may be going through a rough patch and may be feeling a little bit depressed about things, particularly their purpose in life. This article explores suggestions for why you do get up in the morning so that if you are feeling down, maybe a few of these ideas will motivate you to get up next time you’re starting your day.

Why do you get up in the morning?

1.) You get up in the morning because you CAN

We get up everyday because we can. We have been blessed with the opportunity to create a life for ourselves and make it the best life that we can. But how do we do that? How do you find the motivation to get up because you WANT to and not just because you can?

Getting up in the morning is all about motivation. You need something to motivate you enough to get out of bed and start your day. So what motivates you?

2.) You get up in the morning to achieve Desires, Goals & bucket list items

Knowing what you don’t want and knowing what you DO want:

Desires to do certain things can motivate you to get out of bed in the morning. If you’re thinking “there’s nothing I want to do!” or “I don’t know what I want!”, then there’s good news for you: Every time you know that you don’t want something, you automatically are one step closer to knowing what you do want.

For example: If you know that you don’t want to work in the city amongst thousands of workers working in a tiny cubicle, you can start figuring out what you do want. Maybe this suggests you want to work in a smaller company that’s got fewer workers and a friendlier environment. Maybe it means that you know that you want to work somewhere that’s comfortable and spacious – maybe even working outdoors. You see how knowing what you don’t want can help you figure out what you do want?

Turn push factors into pull factors

There are two categories of motivating factors for getting us to get out of bed in the morning and live our lives: push factors and pull factors.

Push factors are those things which push us in an uncomfortable way to get stuff done, usually out of fear and shame. It is the metaphorical whip that drives you into action. I’ll give you a few examples of push factors that motivate people to get up in the morning:

• Fear of homelessness
• Fear of poverty and related issues including hunger, poor lifestyle, few luxuries, little opportunity for fun
• Fear of disappointing others, usually parents, guardians, partners and children
• Fear of looking bad to society and being labelled with negative labels like “lazy”, “useless” etc.
• Fear of being alone and lonely
• Fear of wasting your life away

A better-feeling motivator would be a pull factor, which draws us into doing things like a sugar lump can entice a horse to move forward towards it. All push factors can be pivoted into pull factors.

There can be lots of other good pull factors which usually take the form of goals and bucket list items of things you really want to do. Goals can be as general or as specific as you want to make them. Here are a few examples of goals that can help motivate you to wake up and make things happen:

• Specific Goals:
  • Desire to learn a new skill because it looks like fun (play a musical instrument, learn a language, learn an art or craft)
  • Desire to see and experience certain things in the world (eg swimming with dolphins, dining at a top restaurant, visiting a natural wonder in the world, hearing a certain performer perform live, experiencing what love feels like, experiencing adventures, thrills and excitement)
  • Desire to help a certain cause in the world
• General Goals:
  • Desire to feel good
  • Desire to feel happy
  • Desire to feel useful
  • Desire to feel free
  • Desire to create new things
  • Desire to expand and grow personally and spiritually

For more ideas on life goals see this article: Life Goals

If you don’t know what your goals are, sit down and make a list for yourself. Then pin it up somewhere you can see it near your bed to remind yourself of all the reasons you have to get up in the morning, because every day you can take a step forward towards meeting these goals. It can give more purpose and motivation to doing your job and earning money and can help you feel better about your days.

3.) You get up in the morning to experience all the joys of life and to follow your fun

Goals aside, there are lots of little things in life which can give great joy and satisfaction. Sometimes these little things can give a clue to our true passion in life and sometimes they are simply moments of appreciation that we experience, which feel good.

When you wake up in the morning, if you have little joys to look forward to, it can help motivate you to get out of bed.

Examples of everyday joys and treats to look forward to:

• Beautiful sights e.g. seeing the sun rise and set with glorious colors, enjoying the experience of matching an outfit and looking good in the mirror
• Wonderful sounds e.g. hearing a tune you love or playing an instrument yourself.
• Delicious tastes e.g. that first taste of warm coffee in the morning, or of melted butter on perfectly toasted bread.
• Pleasant sensations e.g. a hug from a loved one and other physical intimacy; joy of dance,
• Fun experiences with people: enjoying a laugh with a friend or loved one, sharing interesting and intellectually stimulating conversations, enjoying the feelings of acceptance and stimulation.
• Fun experiences with animals: the joy of cuddling up with your pet, the fun of playing with an animal
• Enjoyable entertainment: e.g. reading a good book, seeing a good movie, playing a fun computer game,
• Creativity: making art, writing a story, poem or your thoughts on a certain topic.
• Excitement and thrills: The thrill of riding a motorbike to work or the little thrilled feeling in your stomach when you jump just as an elevator comes to a stop.
• Flow: Enjoying those moments when you’re in a state of flow and everything seems to come easily and before you know it, hours have passed and you’ve barely noticed because you were enjoying the productive flow so much.

It may be a good idea to make a list of all the things you find fun or have enjoyed doing in the past and putting that besides your goal list to look at in the morning.

It may be helpful to start your list with morning-things that are most likely to immediately resonate with you in the morning. Things like “enjoying your dog waking you up in the morning”, “enjoying seeing the beautiful colors of the sunrise”, “enjoying picking out an outfit, getting dressed and looking smart” “enjoying the taste of coffee”, “enjoying the taste of melting butter of freshly toasted bread”, “enjoying listening to some great tunes as you walk to work listening to your ipod” or “enjoying the feeling of driving your motorbike to work” etc.

Sometimes there are things that you think seem fun but you need to muster the courage to try them. It may be being brave enough to do that bungee jump you’ve always wanted to experience or even a matter of gathering your courage to go to a singing lesson. You ARE brave enough to do them, it’s just a matter of pushing past the initial resistance. Stop thinking of all the reasons not to do it, and just think of how fun it could be, – concentrate on the positives – rev yourself up and do it!

4.) You wake up in the morning to experience expansion

As humans we all have a desire to expand and grow, be it in experiences (wanting to experience a lot of different sights, sounds, tastes and feelings), knowledge, to better the world, or to better yourself through personal development or spiritual growth. That need to grow and expand within specific fields can be a great motivator to get up in the morning.

5.) Get out of bed because chances are, if you get out of bed, things will get better

If you don’t want to get up in the morning because life is really bad right now, keep in mind that things can turn around – even today! Things can start feeling better!

Often, when we go through tough times, we come out the other end stronger. A perfect example of this is the spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle who found himself feeling purposeless and depressed as a university student and just at the point of declaring that he couldn’t live with himself anymore, that’s when he had a spiritual aha moment that changed his life forever, giving his life a renewed sense of purpose and filling him with a sense of peace and appreciation.

One way to get yourself going is to tell yourself that you can start working towards a goal for 10 minutes and then you can stop if you like. Chances are you’ll want to continue once you get going, and then you’re out of bed and feeling better.

If you’re looking to make your own life goals list, below is an example life goals list to help you come up with yours.

In order to avoid feeling overwhelmed by long lists of goals, you can asterisk the top 10 goals that you most want to achieve and focus on those first. I’d recommend picking some realistic easy-to-accomplish ones within your top 10 and if you have bigger goals that seem more tricky to achieve, I’d suggest breaking down that goal into baby sized achievable steps you’d need to take to enable you to reach it. As you achieve certain goals you can cross them off the list and of course you can always add new goals as new desires arise.

Without further ado, here is an example life goals list to help get you started with yours:

Money life Goals

• I want to have enough income to live comfortably and be able to buy anything I want freely.
  You can expand on this goal by defining what “live comfortably” means for you:
  - Have an income of X amount of dollars a month / year
  - Live in a nice house
  - Live in comfortable temperature (heating / air conditioning)
  - Have a great car
  - Be able to afford to go on holiday twice a year to exotic locations
  - Be able to afford to eat out in restaurants whenever I want
  - Be able to afford to go out to the cinema, theater and concerts whenever I want
  - Be able to afford to take whichever hobby classes I want
  - Be able to afford to study whatever I want
  - Be able to afford to treat myself to pampering whenever I want
• Have enough income to give a certain amount of dollars to charity each year

Career life Goals

• I want to experience what it’s like to work in [insert field here]
  Examples: Movie industry, music industry, law, medicine, art, sport etc
• I want to experience what it’s like to reach [this level job title] within [this field]
• I want to experience what it’s like to build my own business from scratch

Family & Relationship life Goals

• I’d like to build a secure and loving relationship with a romantic partner
• I’d like to have a loving family of my own and experience raising children
• I’d like to spend at least X days a week socializing with friends/ family
• I’d like to have a family reunion every X years with my family
• I’d like to have a reunion every X years with my school friends.
• I’d like to  own my dream pet
• I’d like to own egg-laying chickens
• I’d like to know my family history and family tree.
• I’d like to experience a blind date

Educational life Goals

• I want a [insert level] qualification in [insert subject here]
  eg high school diploma, bachelor degree, master degree, phd, etc
• I want to satisfy my curiosity on the subjects that interest me (e.g. history / geography / cultural fun facts / etymology / understanding psychology / body language / understanding health)
• I want to know how to do [insert subject here].
  Example subjects: photography, acting, playing an instrument, stock market, knitting, how to do CPR, play golf, sewing, jewelry making, snowboarding, dancing, speaking another language, surfing,  gardening, cooking, making your own wine / beer / cheese / chocolate , sailing, juggling,  how to survive in the wilderness etc.

Personal development life goals

• Increasing happiness and contentment
• Overcoming fears: I’d like to feel comfortable even when [insert situation].
• Increasing confidence
• Feel comfortable giving a speech in front of a crowd
• Increasing calm and peace: Goals to help achieve this could include meditation practices.
• Improve certain social skills

 Physical life goals

• I’d like to achieve my ideal body weight
• I’d like to eat healthily
• I’d like to have a regular exercise regime
• I’d like to run a marathon

Fun & experiential life goals

• Write (and publish) a book / movie screenplay / play
• Be published about in a newspaper / magazine at least once
• Make a website
• Make a successful film / short film / drama production
• Make a song that thousands of others will enjoy
• Paint a public art mural
• Play in a band / orchestra
• Meet [insert inspirational person here]
  eg movie star, celebrity, politician, singer, spiritual leader
• See the world, and above all I’d love to travel to [insert countries or places here]
  eg Disney world, Venice, Edinbugh, the Caribbean, European landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and the tower of Pisa etc
• Dine in the world’s finest restaurants – make a list of places you’d like to experience.
• Taste very type of cuisine in the world: British, American, Italian, French, Peruvian, Japanese, Chinese, Polish, Afghani, Khazak, German, Austrian, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, , Russian, Israli, Arab, African, Jamaican, Chilean, Argentinian, Brazilian, etc etc etc
• Try adventurious things like mountain climbing / water skiing / skiing / tobogganing / bungee jumping / white water rafting / sky diving / scuba diving / hang gliding/ gliding / parasailing / indoor skydiving / [insert experience here]
• Try every sport you ever wanted to try: Experience what it’s like to play tennis / badmington / ping pong / football/ archery / darts / insert sport here. (For ideas for more sports you can try check out this list)
• Play all the games you’ve ever wanted to play – word games, acting games, drawing games, board games, card games.
• Solve a rubicks cube
• Finish a jigsaw puzzle
• Finish a 3D jigsaw puzzle
• Pet a dog / cat / elephant / chick/ dolphin / shark /  [insert animal here]
• Ride a horse / elephant / camel / [insert animal here]
• Milk a cow
• Ride in a dream car / plane/ speedboat / jet ski / helicopter / hot air balloon / limo/ motorbike /
• Grow your own fruit / vegetables from scratch
• Be on TV in a game show / as an extra in a show / in the audience / etc
• Be in the audience of a baseball game / football match / olympic games / wimbledon [insert your interest here]
• Go to at least one red carpet event, Nobel prize ceremony, Oscar ceremony or [insert ceremony you'd like to attend]
• Read all the books on a top 100 book list of your choice
• See all the movies on the top 100 movies list of your choice
• Watch at least one movie from each country that has made a movie.
• Experience tapping a tree for syrup.
• Try camping  and experience roasting marshmallows on a fire and sleeping out under the stars
• Watch the top 10 (or more!) musicals in the world – make a list of the ones you want to see.
• Go to an acting class at least once just for the fun of it
• Go to a singing class at least once
• Experience the celebrations of other cultures around the world eg Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwana, Chinese New Year, Ramadan, etc etc
• Fly a kite
• Experience karaoke
• Experience a nude beach
• Experience a live fireworks display at least once
• Experience a massage
• Experience spa  treatments at least once e.g. deep tissue massage, hot stone massage, try a massage chair
• Visit all the top movie studios in the world (Universal, Paramount, etc)
• Visit the Birthplace or home of a historic or cultural figure that you respect and feel inspired by
• Visit an star observatory at least once
•  Experience weightlessness e.g. go on a vomit comet

World-related life goals

• Invent something that helps make the world a better place



• Inspire people through your writing / speeches / movies / [insert method here] to make the world a better place
• Help clean up the world to make it a more beautiful place
• Create art in public places (murals / sculptures / artistic floral arrangements / landscaping) to make the world a more beautiful place
• At least once in your life, give a generous cheque / donation to a good cause that you believe in – that will make a difference to them.
• Donate your time to help charities on a regular basis
• At least once in your life take part in a peaceful demonastration to raise awareness for a certain cause you believe in.

All of us have days when we really don’t feel like doing anything. It’s normal and ok to feel that way. But if you’re not enjoying this feeling, there is lots you can do to start feeling better right now! How do you start feeling more excited and motivated about things when you just don’t feel like doing anything? Here are a few ideas:

1.) Get ideas:
Visit a “stuff to do when you’re bored” or “what to do when you don’t know what to do” article for ideas. Maybe one of the ideas you read will grab your fancy, you never know!

2.) Reconnect with you goals and take a small step towards them:
Most of us have some long-term life goals, whether it’s a money-goal, relationship-goal, humanitarian-goal, personal-development goal or anything else. Even during the times when you don’t feel like doing anything, deep down, those goals are still something you want to do.

Depending on what you feel like doing most, here are two ideas to help you reconnect with feeling like doing something towards these goals again:

(a.) Take a piece of paper and start listing reasons why you want to reach your goal. Sometimes reminding yourself of why reaching a goal will be good can start getting the motivation and passion flowing.

(b.) Use your time to start doing something that works towards your long term or short term goals, even if you don’t feel like it. Choose a small, easy activity that will generally benefit your goal. Every journey starts with a single step no matter how small. Maybe once you start, you’ll start feeling like doing more of it – plus you get closer towards your goals.

3.) Use the opportunity to get practical stuff done:
Start doing something that works towards something you need to do at some point but you haven’t had the time to do it yet, eg picking out an early birthday present for a family member or friend, or choosing places in the world you’d like to visit and start planning a travel plan.

4.) Reconnect with fun and take small steps towards it:
Just start doing something that you know you’ve enjoyed in the past (e.g. a hobby, go for a walk in a beautiful place, meet or call a friend) even if it doesn’t particularly contribute towards any goals per se. Maybe once you start, you’ll find that soon you’re feeling better and enjoying yourself. Sometimes you just have to push beyond the resistance to find the fun.

5.) Connect with an uplifting person
Sometimes when you connect with another individual who *is* feeling motivated to do stuff, just spending time with them can help lift you into a similar vibration. This may be a family member you can talk to, a friend or even a stranger from the internet. All can be catalysts to help you feel better and more motivated to start doing something.

6.) Hang out in a new place
Sometimes changing up the routine and spending time in a new place can provide a different energy and vibe which can get ideas flowing and can get motivation going. This can mean taking a walk outside somewhere, or it can mean hanging out in a different room in the house than you normally do.

7.) Do nothing in style!
Sometimes the feeling of doing nothing is there because you may be overworked and genuinely need a break. So relax, and if you feel like doing nothing, make the most of it and enjoy it! Do nothing in a way that feels the best. For example, maybe you can do nothing whilst listening to some feel good songs, watch your favorite tv show or some feel good videos on youtube, or maybe you could relax in a cosy bubble bath, maybe with a magazine or something, and start enjoying the sensations of the warm bubbles around you to start feeling better. You may want to do nothing whilst spending time in a fresh environment, especially if it’s a nice day out – like in a pretty park – just absorb the sunshine, listen to the sound of the breeze rustling the leaves and enjoy the nature around you. Or maybe you can put on a relaxation CD or do progressive muscle relaxation to feel calm and accepting of the “doing nothing” situation. Another idea is to meditate. All these can feel great!