Printed in The Hartford Courant

Boredom has a bad rap. It has become an unfortunate catchall for activities we merely don't like or for when we are insufficiently entertained. And so we busy ourselves looking for the next shot of adrenaline when what we need to do instead is sit still.

The gift of boredom lies in its pinch of complacency. It is the gauntlet of challenge, an awakening to change, not a demon to flee but a road map for delving beyond. Says Leo Stein, "Boredom is an emptiness filled with insistence."

When clients of Margaret Greenberg of the Greenberg Group, an executive coaching practice in Andover, say they are bored, she says, "Good for you! OK, let's use that. Let's discover what's in the boredom." And usually, she says, the clients will find "they are not living fulfilled lives."

Greenberg says that many people distract themselves with what she calls "the little A agenda" vs. "the big A agenda." She says that what they are avoiding are the big questions: What's this life I'm living? What's my purpose? Boredom is not an obstacle to overcome; it is a cascade of questions to be answered.

That's opposite from chasing after what's new. Moving past self-spun frenzy or quick fixes to that place inside of us where our dissatisfaction bubbles means being willing to ask, "What do I really want?" and then having the courage to act on it. That's when we've reached the other side. If discipline is "the ability to keep going when the thrill is gone," then trundling through boredom requires that we continually discover new ways to motivate ourselves.

Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. learned that during a post-surgical convalescence. In an interview with Gwen Ifill on the PBS Online NewsHour, he said, "I was stuck at home for three months with no hip, and bored out of my mind, particularly when the Supreme Court took away the chad count, and I didn't have anything to do."

That's when Gates began reading antiquarian catalogs on Afro-Americana and Africana and discovered an item in an auction catalog: a 301-page handwritten manuscript purportedly written by a female fugitive slave. Gates bid on the manuscript in absentia and authenticated it, and Warner Books published it as "The Bondwoman's Narrative" in 2002.

Surgery forced Gates to be still. Greenberg encourages clients to do the same with a 15-minute exercise that helps them to "be fully present with themselves." She said: "Do you know how difficult that is? In my coaching practice, I see people for the first time giving themselves permission to ask these questions, to just be."

Change really is life's only constant, and it presents in two forms: proactive and reactive. Most adults change in response to external forces beyond their control, which often results in crisis or panic. But among boredom's greatest gifts are the unearthing of talents, skills and new interests, and they allow us the grace of measured response as we chart our own course toward the lives we value most.

Gina Greenlee writes a twice-monthly column for The Courant. She is a free-lance writer who lives in Hartford. Her web site is available at PostcardsAndPearls.com. To leave her a comment, please call 860-241-3841 or e-mail her at gdg70@hotmail.com.