Tuesday Morning Wake-Up Call (“Getting inside the machine”)

Posted on by Live & Learn

Almost nothing is worse, then, than realizing that your life itself has become boring. Perhaps you have at one time or another concluded that your work is drudgery, your hobbies humdrum; that even your relationships are superficial and unsatisfying. Each day reminds you of the one before. What is there to do?

One obvious answer is to run away, to throw out the old routines and connections, and find new ones instead. But maybe the solution to boredom is the exact opposite: not to seek a new life, but to go deeper into the one you have. This is exactly what the Danish existentialist philosopher Søren Kierkegaard advocated. When life becomes tedious to you, he argued, you don’t need to look outside for something to shake up your malaise. You need instead to look inward and find what’s missing within your own heart and soul…

According to Kierkegaard, when we first find life boring, we seek new delights…This is the time, usually in early adulthood, when people are most open to new experiences and opportunities. For some…“the aesthetic” might encompass a more innocent sort of experience—a hobby such as travel, say.

This is fine for a while. For many, though, this consumerist approach to living eventually comes to seem trivial—and, ultimately, boring. “Is this all there is?” you ask yourself. At this transition to the next stage, you need to shift from treating life as an act of consumption to becoming part of a process that creates deeper experiences. You need to “get inside the machine.” …

Kierkegaard’s stages do not need to correspond to specific chronological ages. You can put his ideas to use no matter where you are in your life’s journey. And you can apply them to any particular area of life, from the simplest of tasks to the grandest of endeavors.

Take, for example, an ordinary activity like reading. At the aesthetic level, you read what you come across that seems interesting; maybe you ask people for suggestions, or just browse around between news and essays on the internet. For some, this is good enough. But for you, it might not be—because you want to read with greater focus and purpose, to use your reading to learn and grow. If so, you can move to the ethical stage, in which you make a point of reading more deeply in a few areas, and look for ways to apply that knowledge to your life and work…

Or consider your work. Many young adults cast about professionally, taking this job or that, to get different experiences and see what they enjoy and are good at. This is the aesthetic approach to work. Some stay in this stage their whole working life, but others realize in young adulthood that they want more of a vocation, so they proceed to the ethical stage and fully commit to a career by investing in education or moving for an important job. This turns their work into a relationship that fuses their values with their labor to create a professional purpose that has real personal meaning…

Therein lies the paradoxical beauty of Kierkegaard’s approach for all of us. The monotony of life contains a reservoir of ways to find relief, if we can only muster the courage and energy to dive in instead of opting out. If today you find yourself bored with your work—perhaps surfing around and reading some random essay on happiness—you may have just gotten a signal from the universe that it’s time for your spirit to evolve.

— Arthur C. Brooks, from “Kierkegaard’s Three Ways to Live More Fully. Take a cue from the Danish philosopher: Instead of seeking a new life, go deeper into the one you have.” (The Atlantic, January 11, 2024)

30 thoughts on “Tuesday Morning Wake-Up Call (“Getting inside the machine”)”

  3. “perhaps surfing around and reading some random essay on happiness—you may have just gotten a signal from the universe that it’s time for your spirit to evolve.”

    I like this concept, and when one’s life is feeling “lackluster” it is worth a hard look at diving deeper into things you love. But sometimes people just go down the wrong road for many different reasons, or they find that they have reached the end of the road and need to try a new one. In those situations I believe experimenting with things that are completely new also deserves serious consideration.

    Figuring out how to “refresh a life that feels dull” can be hard work, and often requires some serious soul-searching.

    Good article! Thanks Dave.

    2. Hi Klaus, I was just going to pour congrats on the man when I read your comment, and – lo and behold – had, of course, to dig a bit into this guy… Have you seen this:

      https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/kierkegaard-on-the-couch/#:~:text=Clearly%2C%20Kierkegaard%20thought%20that%20the,attitude%2C%20a%20posture%20towards%20ourselves.
      Kind of overthrows a bit of the content of that other article…. Boys, you guys make me really, really work hard to follow. I should be mad at both of you! And hey, it’s also probably part of the experience of some life-skills-learning.

      1. Hi Kiki
        thank you very much for this link.
        Kierkegaard was terribly unhappy in love all his life and had a big problem with women. From my point of view, his life was characterized by depression, definitely a life I would never aspire to. However, it would never have occurred to me to see Kierkegaard from the point of view of life support.
        My encounter with Kierkegaard was scientific as I taught a Ph.D. course in Scandinavian philosophy. Seeing Kierkegaard’s ideas as self-help never came into my students’ minds. Studying Kiekegaar’s life is rather an instructions on how to be unhappy – well, if you call that depth … But of course, one can rationalise everything.
        Anyway, I hope you will not end up like Søren K 😉
        Klausbernd 🙂

  5. I so loved reading that post, Dave. With me it wasn’t so much to search ‘deeper’ but knowing what I didn’t want to continue in my life. And the para on reading was just that too, fine example. Haven’t got the time to go deeper into that now, but I DO have a question to YOU my friend: Where do YOU stand right now? THAT would be interesting to talk about.
    For now, Kierkegaard is shut in his closet; I have a life to live and stuff to do. Great choice Dave. (And remember, we want to hear about YOUR decisions and choices….)

  6. There is so much f…..g wonder in the world, and things to appreciate and learn. I can’t imagine being so entangled with my own thoughts that everything feels stagnant and boring. That’s a heavy burden to carry around.

  7. Recently finished From Strength To Strength by Brooks..He elevates the discourse by his writing style – and perhaps when we look at self-absorbed people, our reaction is visceral. We want to tell them to get over it -difficult under the best of circumstances – but in effect we’re telling them to step back from the mirror (figuratively) and open their eyes…

  8. “But for you, it might not be—because you want to read with greater focus and purpose, to use your reading to learn and grow. If so, you can move to the ethical stage, in which you make a point of reading more deeply in a few areas, and look for ways to apply that knowledge to your life and work…’

    and,

    “This turns their work into a relationship that fuses their values with their labor to create a professional purpose that has real personal meaning…”

    This resonates!
    And I strongly feel that individuals who when they get bored stop, look around, look at past experiences, and look again to see where they’re heading and why, then worker harder and deeper are eventually happier in life.

    A midlife crisis doesn’t always have to go wrong. This boredom comes for a reason. And I think that within a healthy lifespan it should come every few years.

    Thank you for sharing dk

  9. Love! I had a great Uncle Soren and now have a grandson named Soren. You had my attention at Soren .. and reading! So much of this resonates with me, thank you. MJ

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