5 Fun Ideas to Shake Up Your Life & Get Out Of A Rut

KEYPOINTS

• 01

  Play 'never been there, never done that' instead of waiting for Bali

  Mel's game: make a list of places and experiences near home you've never tried, then pick one a week for the rest of the year. All it takes is about 30 minutes and walking out the door, and it needn't cost anything. Whether you live in a city, suburb or rural area, she argues, there are restaurants, coffee shops, trails, galleries, junk shops, library lectures and leagues you've driven past for years.

• 02

  Big trips stay on the horizon; local adventures can happen this week

  Mel's executive producer Tracy described a family brainstorm — the Caribbean, Patagonia, a safari, Greece — that ended with no trip, because not a single date worked for everyone. Mel says to keep dreaming big, but notes such trips can take two years to fund and schedule, whereas a local adventure can happen in the next seven days.

• 03

  You get a mood boost from planning, and another from doing

  Mel cites research that having something to look forward to lifts mood and energy when you plan it and again when you do it. Retelling her own adventures, she says, delivers a third boost as she relives them.

• 04

  Small goals give you direction and 'a game worth playing'

  Each item on the list is a micro-goal that lifts you off autopilot. Without one, Saturday turns into the usual grocery run, chores and the same coffee stop. With one, you wake up and head to the new nursery or the fly-fishing museum, and the day feels more meaningful.

• 05

  Habituation is why routine loses its sparkle

  Researchers call it habituation: you get so used to something you stop noticing it — the 20th order of your favorite bolognese doesn't taste as good as the first, and a partner, a backyard or a painting you've looked at for five years stops dazzling. Mel previews an upcoming episode with an MIT neuroscientist on the topic, and says change — of environment, route, people or routine — is what restores wonder.

• 06

  Your area is an anthill: it looks dull until you look inside

  Someone described Mel's rural corner of Southern Vermont as 'very deceiving': from outside there's nothing to do, but inside is a whole vibrant world. When her son wanted to move there four years earlier, Mel had protested it was 'where people go to die' — she'd only ever visited her in-laws for weekends of hiking, golf and skiing. If you exhaust your town, go one town, neighborhood or block over.

• 07

  Mel barely explored Boston in 26 years

  Living in the Boston area, she stuck to the same three restaurants and one coffee shop, rarely went to Fenway, visited the Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum perhaps once or twice, and never made it to the Harbor Islands. She even owned a paint-your-own-pottery shop on Natick's two-and-a-half-block main street — which never made money — without visiting half the neighboring stores.

• 08

  A 'fail' still counts

  The point is novelty, not perfection — Mel says a mediocre attempt is good enough because doing something different shakes things up. Some detours are amazing and some are 'meh'.