Steven Pressfield, one of my most favorite authors, once defined what is “boring.”
He writes, “Something that’s boring goes nowhere. It travels in a circle. It never arrives at its destination.”
“My impression is, you keep recycling the same things that never work in your relationship,” I told a married couple in a session a few weeks ago.
The wife asked, “Can you give an example doc of what is recycled that never work for us?” “Your husband just mentioned it awhile ago: negativity,” I responded.
Daily, “negativity” dominates their talks and behaviors to each other. Outside their awareness, more likely, they do that.
And it’s keeping their healing and marriage stuck. The same endlessly-repeating loop.
Addictions are like that too. Substance abuse, such as alcohol or drugs. Rage. Sexual escapes. Financial overspending, materialism. Cyber-addiction. And a host of many others.
Repeated act, but no forward movement. No destination gets reached. It’s simply tedious, futile.
That’s what makes addiction, like boredom, a life of hell.
In both boredom and addiction, two primary qualities then apply, as Steven Pressfield put it:
1. They embody repetition without progress;
2. They produce incapacity as a payoff.
Boredom. Remember what it can do to your mental health.
Secrets of Your Self:
