The secret to happiness? Embrace the Boring and Rejoice in Repetition | Adrian Chiles

A box of fancy collagen supplements read, "Life is too short for hard-to-swallow pills and boring powders." This isn't that the truth? How many times have I considered swallowing a paracetamol tablet, or wearily mixing Andrews Liver Salts in water, and crying in despair that life is just too short for such tasks? Never of course.

Similarly, do you have an electric vehicle charger at home? Are you, you know, a little bored with this? I mean, why wouldn't you be? Do not worry. Help is at hand. A company specializing in the most exciting chargers - your choice of color and finish combinations!" - invites you to "say goodbye to boring chargers". Imagine the scene: the whole family, dog and all, gathered on the ride to say goodbye to the old charger It used to charge great but was just too boring The man from Fancy Chargers Ltd has just fitted an exciting new one and he's removing the boring old one You wave it for its final journey, to the discharge probably. Emotional.

Most of me despair of sheer conceit. taking a commoditized product and trying to sell it as an object of desire.Hunter Boots (originally the North British Rubber Company) had been around for over a century before its boots suddenly became fashion staples. Joseph Joseph achieved something similar with kitchen utensils. Respect, I guess. Not bad.

But in other ways, the horror of boredom is the root of a lot of bad things. Before the South Sea bubble in the early 18th century, the catnip of big returns on investment drove us mad with desire and into many financial crises. If only we stuck to boring investments in boring businesses promising boring but steady returns. But no - just too boring. I was talking to a former banker about the 2008 financial crisis. "Raise your hand," he said. "We were driving the car when it crashed, but there were lots of people in the backseat pushing us to go faster and faster."

The older I get, the more I believe the secret to happiness is the ability to embrace the boring, reclaim the mundane, and rejoice in repetition. In matters of the heart and wallet, in relationships and family life, and in the workplace, we would experience more lasting success if we stopped being bored by boredom, if we stopped looking for what which we tell ourselves is the next exciting thing. After all, everything gets boring eventually if you let it.

I once went to mass on a Monday night at a huge church on Bury New Road in Manchester. There were only six of us present, plus the priest who gave a short but brilliant sermon. Then, modestly responding to my compliments, he told me that he had been ordained almost exactly 40 years to the day. “I treat every Mass as if it were my first or my last,” he said. Yeah, I thought, that's the secret. On the bus home, for some reason, Mick Jagger came to mind. I'm not a huge Stones fan, but I thought how many thousands of times he'd performed Satisfaction or Sympathy for the Devil. And every time he does it like it's the first or the last time.

I thought about all the radio and TV shows I I grumbled, having dared, we're a little bored of all that. And how many times have I lamented the drudgery of changing diapers, combing nits, watching Tweenies over and over, driving the kids, etc. I so wish I had been more Mick, or more of a priest, and treated everything like it was the first or last time I did.

Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and columnist for The Guardian < /p>