If routine and repetition is leaving you stuck, bored and frustrated, you may need to peel back the old and reveal something fresh. One way to do that is to learn something new and spark some creative energy.
After he became stuck in a rut, Matt Cutts, engineer and TED Talks speaker, gave himself a 30-day challenge that changed his life.
"The next 30 days are going to pass whether you like it or not, so why not think about something you have always wanted to try and give it a shot for the next 30 days?" he says.
As an example, Cutts says he always wanted to be a novelist, so he pledged to himself that he'd write at least 1,667 words per day for 30 days. Then he'd have a 50,000-word novel by the end of the month.
"Now, is my book the next great American novel? No. I wrote it in a month! It's awful. But… if I want to, I can say, 'I'm a novelist!'" he says.
Emmy-award winning journalist and author Lu Ann Cahn gave herself a 365-day challenge, which she chronicles in her book "I Dare Me: How I Rebooted and Recharged My Life by Doing Something New Every Day." She was 53, had a good job, a stable marriage and was relatively healthy. But then the economy tanked, her friends started losing their jobs and technology made big changes to how she did her job.
"In 2009, everything was wrong. I felt lost, angry and frustrated," Cahn says.
Her daughter encouraged her to find a creative outlet. With further urging, Cahn decided to pledge to do something new every day for a year. Among the new things she tried were zip lining, riding a mechanical bull, taking a polar bear swim, going back to school, eating a scorpion, and learning how to use PowerPoint.
"I realized you really do have to dare yourself. You have to push yourself out of your normal box. When you are saying 'no' to a lot of things, you go inside. When you start doing new things, your whole life starts opening up again to possibilities," Cahn says. "One 'first' leads to another and you gain confidence," she adds.
Dr. Charles Limb of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, has studied what happens to your brain when you are doing something creative as compared to something rote or memorized. Using MRI, he took pictures of musician's brains when playing a memorized piece of music and when playing an improvisational piece.
Limb explains that when an area of the brain is activated, there is more blood flow in that area. When doing something creative, an improvisational piece for example, more of the brain is activated than during a rote activity.
"For creative behavior, these changes in blood flow are linked to our ability to generate new ideas," Limb says. So neuroscience confirms that doing something creative stimulates our brains and opens up our capacity for further creativity.
To spark your own creativity, explore what is available in your local community. For example, look for art centers and associations where you can try painting or floral design or draw comics or make jewelry. Perhaps try a craft of your ancestors, such as Chinese brush painting, salsa dancing, or Irish fiddle. Also see what your local library and community college have to offer.
Charles Eugster, a 95-year-old body builder, who now lives in Switzerland, has been lifting weights and running races long past the time most people give up such pursuits. He says the key to living a full and energetic life is to never retire and become inactive, because, he says, "Inactivity kills." He adds that you are never too old to learn something new that will give your life purpose.
"The purpose of life is to have purpose in life," Eugster says.
By Laura Strom—Tribune Brand Publishing