Energize Your Day: 4 Simple Ways To Reclaim Your Midlife Energy And Make Life Exciting Again!

Episode 40 | (00:00):
Hey there, friend. Are you ready to energize your day and learn four simple but effective ways to reclaim your midlife energy and start making life exciting again?

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Yeah, I know. We hit midlife and sometimes things get a little blah, don't they? Well, not today because today could be the day that you start turning things around and really start kicking that midlife energy into gear.

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It's all about your mental and emotional energy. So that's what we're talking about today. Are you ready to do this? Are you ready to find out these four little ways? You're gonna love 'em. They're so simple. Let's do it!

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Hey there, Easy Agers. Welcome to the show today. If you are not already on the Easy Aging® Insiders' list, go to TheEasyAgingShow.com and sign up right after this episode. 

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Okay, let's get started. This is the second episode in a series called Energize Your Day. Now, in the last episode, episode 39, I talked about a couple of different types of midlife energy and gave you a two-part exercise to help you figure out where your energy drain could be coming from.

(01:51):
Once you become aware of where your energy is seeping out of you, then you can start addressing it. So check out that episode if you haven't heard it yet.

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Today, I'm talking about some of the reasons you may be lacking midlife energy. It's summer, so sometimes it's just the heat but the reality is, I'm going to talk about this and I'm going to leave you with a few ways to start reclaiming your mental and emotional energy, whether it's summer or not.

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This type of energy, this mental and emotional energy, is crucial in your ability to keep things interesting in midlife. When we're young, we have so much energy, and it's not just physical energy, it's also mental and emotional energy.

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So we had it when we were young, but how do we get our midlife energy back now? It's really all about the way you look at life. Think about this: When we were young, everything was new, everything was appealing. We had a natural curiosity about life that makes every little thing interesting.

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This curiosity starts from the time we're babies and extends on through our 20s and 30s. We have so many new beginnings when we're young from learning to walk and learning how to feed ourselves. This extends on through kindergarten and elementary school and middle school and high school and college.

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All of this is new from age to age, from grade to grade, we are constantly growing and learning and figuring things out. We're learning how to stand in line with our classmates or how to share the monkey bars. Then as we get older, we're learning how to study or how to date or how to pass the SATs.

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We go to college, we learn even more there. And then we get into our jobs and our careers, and even that's new. We have a learning curve, and it's a fairly large learning curve of how to function in the work world. We're learning how to be responsible and how to get up every morning and get to work on time.

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Even if it's just your home office, you still have to be to work on time. Trust me, I know this from personal experience.

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We're learning how to function as a team. We're learning how to contribute. We're learning how to collaborate. We're learning how to behave within a workplace culture. These are soft skills that are gonna be with us for the rest of our lives.

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So getting used to the workplace is a learning curve in and of itself, but we're also learning how to do the work. We have to figure out what's expected of us from our bosses. What are the criteria to provide a quality work product that's acceptable to the boss and to the company? And we're constantly asking, "Hmm, how am I doing? How am I stacking up? Am I doing okay?"

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There are so many things to learn in our 20s and 30s when we enter the workplace, and I'm not even gonna get started on the personal side of things. Things like falling in love and getting married and making the decision to have kids and start your family, and how to figure out who your friends are gonna be for the next few years and all of this.

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Throughout our 20s and 30s, life is really one big learning curve. It's a time of discovering who we are and what we really want in our lives. And all this learning and newness gives us an energy boost.

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But by the time we hit our forties, the bright, shiny allure of life has worn off a little bit. After you've been "adulting" for about 20 years, you feel like you've figured out most of life. By this time, you're looking at life with more of an expert eye, you're approaching life as an expert rather than as a student.

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At some point, on some level, most of us have had this midlife moment where we look at our lives and ask, "Is this all there is? This is what I've been working for this whole time?" You could think you've gone down the wrong path, or you're bored or disappointed or distressed or even depressed because life just isn't as interesting as it used to be...

(05:39):
Or it didn't turn out the way you wanted it to. And when you start thinking this, you are setting yourself up for what is called — yes, my friends — a midlife crisis. And that's no fun for anyone. It's no fun for you, and it's definitely no fun for the people around you. So let me ask a question here:

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Is it really a midlife crisis, or is it simply the fact that you stopped being curious about life?

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Curiosity is energizing. Curiosity makes things feel new. Curiosity encourages us to keep learning and growing and looking deeper into ourselves and into our lives.

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Curiosity can be the secret sauce to maintaining our energy. As we age, it can help us maintain our vitality and our drive. So if you're suffering from a lack of midlife energy, start getting curious again.

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And if you're wondering exactly how to do that, why, I'm here to tell you. Here are just a few ways to prime the pump so you can start getting curious about your life once again.

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Number one, ditch the routine or try something new. Now this is really simple. Whatever you normally do, mix it up a little bit. Take a new route to work or to the grocery store.

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Whatever you're eating, maybe mix it up there. Try some new food, try a new restaurant, watch a new type of movie. If you normally watch certain types, switch over and do something different.

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Take a class of something you're interested in. If you normally read biographies or non-fiction, try reading some novels or some fantasy books. All of this is designed to help you start opening yourself up to seeing things with a new eye. That's just gonna really pique your curiosity.

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Number two, explore the outdoors. Now, I know it's summer. Here in Texas, we are in week two or three or 700 of 100 plus degree weather. It's hot. It's really hot here right now but I tell you when it's cooler, I go for walks in the mornings.

(07:39):
But if you're an evening person, right as the sun's going down, go take a walk in your neighborhood and specifically look for things that you pass every single day.

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Take a moment and look at them more closely. Maybe it's a wooden fence. Maybe it's the ivy wrapping around the fence. Maybe it's checking out your neighbor's front porch, the one that has the big swing and the pretty lights that come on in the evenings.

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Take a few seconds. Look at a flower, look at a leaf, get up close and personal with it. Again, this is the stuff that will whet your appetite for becoming more curious and making curiosity a regular part of your life.

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Number three, get creative. Now I would highly, highly encourage you to do this, especially if you think you aren't creative. Julia Cameron of The Artist's Way says, "Think mystery, not mastery." Don't even worry about whether or not you can do something. If it intrigues you, just give it a try.

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Maybe you can paint ceramics or write an essay or try a new dance class because creativity, like curiosity, refreshes you. The joy of creating is a beautiful way to find a new part of yourself while sparking your own curiosity about yourself.

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Who knows? If you like something, you may have found a new hobby for the rest of your life. Give it a shot. What do you say?

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Number four (and this is the last one). Release the things or people that aren't serving you any longer. When you do this, you're making space in your life to start receiving the things that can make life interesting again. It'll help you increase your curiosity levels.

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Let's say you're unhappy with something and it keeps popping up in your mind. You start thinking about it a lot. It's just kind of gnawing at you, like the pebble in your shoe or something. Maybe, just maybe, it's time for you to take some action.

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Whether that is a thing or a person, take a couple of minutes to think about your life and ask yourself, "What do I really like about my life? And what do I not like about my life?" Maybe it's time for you to take an action and start creating some more space in your life so you can become more curious and make life more interesting and exciting again.

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To recap, one of the easiest ways to energize your life is to just get curious about your life. Again, here are four ways you can do this. There are many more, but here are just four to be thinking about.

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Number one, ditch the routine or try something new. Number two, explore the outdoors. Number three, get creative and number four, release the things or people that aren't serving you any longer. So that's it for today.

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I hope this sparked your curiosity so you can start experiencing more midlife energy on a regular basis. And until next time, peace, love and blessings to you and yours. Take care. Bye-bye!