Does it feel like you’ve lost the bounce from your bungee? Maybe it’s burnout. Maybe it’s something else. Whatever the reason, here are 3 tips that helped me get my bounce back!

In Wallace and Gromit A Close Shave, there is a scene where Wallace is in the yarn shop, and Gromit is cleaning the windows, by way of bouncing on a bungee cord. At some point, Gromit stops bouncing, and Wallace says “The bounce has gone from his bungee.” How relatable. We’ve all been there. Maybe it’s burnout, or a stacking of life things, or you just feel stuck, uninspired, unsure how to proceed. As a society, it seems we’ve perhaps over-indexed on logic and reason at the expense of creativity. Or maybe we are just too bogged down on our day-to-day lives and the news to even think about creative things. But creativity is your life force, and figuring out how to tap back into it can truly transform your work and your life. Here are three tips for how I got my bounce back:

1. Quit drinking alcohol. I cannot tell you how much this choice changed my life when it comes to creativity. Before I stopped drinking, I was so worried that life would be boring on the other side. Boy was I wrong about that! Check out Quit Like a Woman if you want to learn more about the alcohol industry and what alcohol does to our brains. Dry January can be a great time to start your journey of giving up alcohol, and now is a great time to start thinking about how you will change your habits to support an alcohol-free life. This Brene Brown podcast with James Clear about Atomic Habits has some good insights on how to establish new habits and break old ones.
2. Learn to dance. One important aspect of creativity is being okay with putting ideas out there. At the root of it, that’s what creativity is. You have to be okay with taking a risk and maybe looking dumb sometimes. You have to ride the line of “Cringe.” Learning how to dance in front of other people is a great way let go of worrying about what other people think. Dance has also been scientifically proven to make us happier and heal our bodies, which allows us to tap into our natural joy. Plus, it’s really fun.
3. Keep track of your energy. A few years ago, I read Designing Your Life, which has an exercise in it where you go about your day-to-day life, and after each activity, you note whether it brought you energy or drained your energy. Then all you have to do is lean into the things that bring you energy and lean away from the things that drain your energy (or at least keep them in balance). If you do this over and over again, it will gradually transform your life. When I did this exercise, it also helped me notice the discrepancy between who I thought I wanted to be (what I thought I liked doing) vs who I actually am (how those activities actually felt). It was through this exercise that I realized I wasn’t having any fun playing tennis, an activity I picked up for fun, and it helped rediscover my love for dance and trail running. Even just a few minutes of things that bring you energy each day can transform your life.

Change is never easy, but the small steps you take every day can really add up.

By the way, I made a little app to help you process your feelings! Check out the feelings machine