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Enneagram Type 5 Board Archive Biggest Problem in LifePosted by JP on November 13, 2001 at 13:03:00: I would like to know what other 5’s consider to be their biggest issue or problem in life. What do you struggle with most on a day-to-day basis? And I don’t mean hidden motivations (like maybe fear) or unconscious patterns (avoiding/dreading conflict, for example), but rather what negative emotion/situation do you typically experience most often? For me it would have to be *boredom*. Like at work, when I am engaged in something challenging or stimulating, I am fine. But as soon as things settle down into a routine I find the boredom to be maddening. At home I often find the same thing; I look for ways to entertain or involve myself, but too frequently I just plop down in front of the TV (or computer) with a beer or some rum and sedate myself with entertainment. I can look back on my life from childhood on, and this seems to have been a common pattern for me: short-term successful attempts at creating ‘excitement’ for myself by initiating precipitous change, punctuated by periods of long, non-productive boredom. I know it is *me* creating the feeling, because I've been in a lot of different circumstances and places, and the boredom has remained constant. Maybe this isn’t linked to type, but is rather a product of growing up in a rather dull and isolated environment. Or maybe it is linked to type? I know my 6 friend seems to share this feeling with me, but he grew up in a very similar environment. None of my 7 or 8 friends seem to get bored much. I frequently wonder if perhaps the trick is not to engage in more activity, but rather to free myself from the perceived ‘need’ of activity to ‘counter’ boredom – like maybe I can figure out how to just sit around doing nothing and feel content with that. And then I think, maybe I am just copping out and ‘living in my head’ too much, and what I really need to do is be much more outwardly productive and constructive and really fill my life with concerted activity, because the inactivity/boredom thing just hasn’t created a lot of positive results for me. Or maybe it's a lack of a sense of *purpose*, and the boredom is merely the symptom of this condition? So – if boredom is the main negative perception you experience, what has your response been thus far? If it’s not boredom, then what is your most prominent ‘negative’ internal state that comes up frequently, and how do you deal with it?
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