A buddy of mine asked me the following question: “Would you rather be bored or completely stressed out at work?”

Given only those two choices, my answer is definitely not bored. I have been bored in jobs and I can’t stand it. I usually end up creating more work for myself or finding some way to make things interesting. 

It would be nice not to have one of the two extremes. The ideal job would be challenging and keep me on my toes, but it would not stress me out with long days every day swimming upstream to get anything done. 

It’s also a function of mindset. You could have two people on the same team facing the same circumstances. One person could feel under-the-gun with the stress of looming deadlines while the other could be walking on sunshine without a care in the world. I’m the under-the-gun guy. I have gotten better about this, but I still take my job very seriously. You don’t have to be passionate about a job or even enjoy it to still perform well and have high production and quality. Many people do not operate this way, and unfortunately, it usually makes more work for me. 

At least I’m not bored.