People who seem in control of their lives are not boring.

Agency is key to both feelings of boredom and seeing others as boring.

Establishing your own agency will keep boredom at bay and lead others to see you positively.

Your friend Madison has been working at a Tech Giant for a few years now. Her work is dull, but Madison didn’t feel confident enough to ask her boss for a different role and just lets her job ennui persist. Eventually, she cracks and quits her job. Since then, she has drifted from one thing to another without any direction. Her friends tell her she lacks initiative and needs to step outside of her comfort zone.

Contrast that with your friend Jacob. He’d always wanted to become a doctor, but struggled to get the grades needed to make his dream become a reality. Never giving up, he enrolled in related training programs and worked for years as an intensive care nurse. Jacob eventually broke his way into medical school, worked hard, and finally fulfilled his dream of becoming a doctor.

Who is more boring? Madison or Jacob?

We recently asked this question and found that the key was agency. Demonstrating that you are in control of your life’s direction meant that you were not seen as boring. Behaving as though you had no choice over how your life went led to higher judgments of boringness. Madison was perceived as a bore!

We know that highly boredom-prone people experience less agency. They feel as though they are not fully in control of their lives. And we know........

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