How To Avoid Being Boring

"Now to have things alive and interesting it must be personal, it must come from the 'I': what I know and feel. For that is the only great and interesting thing."
- Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write

"If your everyday life seems poor, don't blame it, blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches...And even if you found yourself in some prison, wouldn't you still have your childhood...?" - Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to A Young Poet

There is no way you can be boring if you look at your life with wonder and imagination. How to do this? Turn off the everyday "critical" brain you use at work, and tap into the way you approached life as a child.

I love to give children the "Most Boring Story in the World" challenge. It's a kick for grownups, too. So you think you're boring? Go ahead: see how boring you can be. Choose the most boring topic or object in your life. Cat food. Ironing. Dust bunnies. After fifteen minutes writing fast, without removing pen from paper, see what has tumbled forth. You'll see that you can't be a bore when you're fully engaged.