Do you ever get bored with life? I’m not really talking about a Saturday afternoon when you have nothing to do, I’m referring to those times when you feel like life has lost it’s meaning. Your job isn’t going anywhere, your daily activities are dripping with routine, and you feel like life has lost it’s purpose.

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Why do we continue to plod on through life when it gets to this point? The answer is: it’s difficult to change. Really difficult! A simple “go try something new!” doesn’t really cut it. For most of us, we have to consider things like our job, our family, our kids, our friends and social lives, our home situation, our money issues and time. The logistics behind uprooting a family and integrating a new job, school, house, pets, friends, sports and social activities can be really challenging!

A year and a half ago I felt exactly like this in my life. I’m happy to report a successful transition to where I am now, and I feel immensely more satisfied. Was it easy to change where I was at? Not really. I’m not someone who easily gets down or depressed and so it was quite foreign to me to be feeling that way. On reflection however I really only have myself to blame for hitting that point without recognising the warning signs, and the whole experience has been rather eye opening for me. Everything changed for the better when I realised I wasn’t happy and made the decision to change.

How I stepped out of a bored existence

Reaching this kind of point in your life is not something that happens overnight. The job I was in at the time was one I liked a lot when I had started it 7 years before. I was living in a house that I really liked. However, things had become stale over time. In my job I was not being challenged anymore - I had reached a point where I knew how to do everything backwards, and really had lost the enjoyment for it. My wife was also working and my kids were both in school, so the challenge of what to do at that point weighed heavily on me.

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I knew when I reached that point that it would be particularly hard to make a change. I was the primary earner for my family, my wife would also have to quit her part time job, and we really didn’t have a lot of money. There was a real concern that stopping everything and moving on would be very detrimental to our money situation. I was so bored with routine, bored with my job and bored with having no challenges or new things to try that I really had no choice however. Here’s what I did:

1. Discussed it with my wife. This did not go down really well! We disagreed on several points for several weeks. My wife wanted to hang around just another year or so, and I was keen to get going that week! We eventually came to a compromise and agreed to see the year out (4-5 months) and then put some of the changes into place.

2. Started investigating other work opportunities. I knew that if I wanted to change my life in 4 months time I would need to start straight away. You can’t reach end of year holidays and expect to find a job, a house, new schools etc all within a couple of weeks. The planning took several months to complete so that I would be ready for the change. I called a friend of mine who worked in the same profession as me in a completely different city and asked about work. He gave me some contacts to get in touch with, and I began that same day. I called an employer and let him know that I was definitely moving that way at the end of the year (I had decided that would happen but had no idea how!) - I let him know I was really keen to work there, and asked if I could keep in touch. I knew that it was a tough job to get, and really worked hard to improve my prospects. I had several more phone and email conversations with him until job interviews came up a few months later.

3. Started investigating costs. I looked up house prices and rental costs for different areas in the city where I wanted to move. I also did up a quick spreadsheet to compare my current living situation to a prospective one. I also decided not to use up my holiday time or take any holidays until the time when I wanted to move. This was just a way of adding a buffer in case there was a transition job from one to the other.

5. Didn’t tell anyone other than my family. This is a personal decision, but if you are involved with a social circle like I was (I played music / sport and regularly socialised with friends) it’s probably not a good idea telling them how bored with life you are - especially if things are still in the ideas phase. It only reinforces your own levels of dissatisfaction, and doesn’t do anything to make your friends feel good! Instead I waited until things had become definite, then I discussed it with my extended family and friends.

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6. Looked into different schools for my kids. Most of this I did online, comparing costs etc, but I also called a few schools to ask about enrollment and cut-off dates. I found this was pretty easy - I thought changing schools would be a difficult part of the process but really once you get the ball rolling things tend to fall into place.

7. Planned the next few months - I wasn’t sure if I would even get a job or if things would actually happen! But I wrote down a plan because I really wanted it to work. I was driven by frustration and also found excitement in having something to plan for! I wrote out possible scenarios re: time frame to quit my current job, when I could start a new job, when I could take holidays to cover moving house, when I should start looking for a new place to live etc. Everything I could think of regarding the transition, I wrote down. I didn’t want to have anything left out that would hinder getting me out of a boring existence!

After I put things into play, things started to work out. Nothing magically dropped into my lap however. If I hadn’t come to a point where I was not going to continue where I was at and made a decision to change, I would still be back in that same job right now! The interesting thing is that once I made the decision to start planning the next phase of my life, I felt liberated! I was so excited at the prospect of change that I didn’t feel so bored anymore. It didn’t matter that work was so monotonous, because I had a side project! The day my life turned around was not the day I moved, it was the day I woke up and said “I’ve had enough!” At that point when my attitude changed, life really picked up for me.

Needless to say, it eventually came together. I moved to the coast (which is just a fantastic place to live), I got a great job, and my kids have settled really well into their new school (this certainly had some ups and downs, and it probably took them 6 months to adjust to the change). My wife eventually found work, and my personal satisfaction with life really turned around.

You may be happy in your current job. You may like where your life is at and be happy with where you are. Great! Just don’t let yourself become stale! Once you slip into a mundane, routine existence your levels of personal satisfaction can really drop. Even for guys who aren’t prone to depression, this can really be a blow to your morale. It all starts by deciding to change.

Have you taken steps to turn your life around? What suggestions do you have for others? Please comment below.