Fighting boredom

I met with a husband/wife pair who owns a 40 person government contracting company.

I asked them if they planned on selling their business or retiring.

The wife wanted to retire. She had some hobbies she wanted to pursue and while she enjoyed running the company, she felt it was time to transition.

The husband on the other hand, didn't want to retire. He thought he'd get bored and that he'd miss the thrill of building the business, even though it's stressful.

What I've found is that boredom is its own kind of stressor, particularly, work boredom.

It causes a weird mixture of anxiety and guilt. Anxiety because you have pent up energy to do other stuff but are trapped at the office. Guilt because you feel like could be doing more work.

It's not natural.

So you need to find a way to combat boredom at work.

This could mean changing jobs. Or it could mean starting a business/going 1099. Or learning a new skill.

So if you're consistently bored at work, take that a sign you need change something.

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.