We've heard time and time again that boredom is a necessity for creativity, and musician Dan Deacon really drives that point home with the above quote from in an interview with NPR.
The whole interview is worth a read, but the above quote comes when Deacon's talking about anxiety and stress:
I very much was a person who was motivated by stress; I would use a deadline as a motivator. I think a lot of people do that, where they're like, "I'll just wait until the last minute, and that'll light a fire underneath me and I'll get it done." And I just kept thinking, "Well, that's a terrible way to live. Why am I building a house and lighting a fire in the basement just to see if I can finish the roof before it burns down my whole house?
I started realizing how important it is to truly relax, and in relaxing, to be bored. You have to be bored. If you're not bored, your mind is never gonna wander, and if your mind never wanders, you're never gonna get lost in thought, and you're never gonna find yourself thinking things you wouldn't have otherwise thought.
Head over to NPR for the full interview.
'You Have to Be Bored': Dan Deacon on Creativity | NPR
Photo by Cristiano Betta.