5 Ways to beat Groundhog Day, today

Have you ever thought about why we experience Groundhog Day?

Maybe I’m an odd one out on this. I’m sure that I read a piece by a doctor several years ago about this sort of feeling and why we experience it.

Now, I’m certainly no medical man myself, however my recollection of the general theme, was that our reason for thinking that life is being spent on that hamster wheel that I’ve mentioned in previous articles, is because we literally are doing the same thing over and over.

Or rather, when we think back over our own recent history, unless we see some ‘peaks’, some difference in our day to day life and also things that we feel joy from, then it all looks all a bit like a flat plain, with nothing too startling that stands out.

How can we try and fix this?

The beautiful thing is that it’s almost like getting back to basics. We just have to book some things in to break up the journey that can become our highlights for our mind to actually ‘remember’ when we look back over that plain.

Nothing too flash, nothing too expensive, nothing too draining. You just have to take action.

How about…?

1. Book in a night away
Find a suitable night, within the next 8 weeks, where either just for yourself, with your other half, family or friends, where you can have a night somewhere else.

This might even extend to a trip…even if you book that for 6 months time, then every time you get a little frustrated and question the hamster wheel, you can think about your pending relaxing times.

2. Book in a day trip
How many times have you said, “we should do that walk” or “we should just do a drive one Sunday and have a look ‘x”. Does it really take that much effort to block out 2–3 hours? I realise we all are juggling, but if you add up how much time you look at social media etc etc, I’d hope that you can find 2–3 hours to experience real life.

3. Compete & Challenge yourself
What sports or hobbies do you like? Take a look around, find an event and enter yourself into a sporting or hobby-related event, sometime within the next four months, so that you have time to prepare. As nervous as you will be to get to the street line, everyone else will be just as nervous.

4. There is nothing like Old Mates
Make a list of people who you haven’t caught up with for a while. Years even.
Create a weekly recurring event in your calendar to contact an old mate, with the goal to lock in a catch up either with a call or an actual face to face. Then just work your way through the list. This can be absolute gold.

5. Take a day off
Book it in. Then use it to do whatever you want to do. Wander a beach. Listen to a podcast whilst you do it. Go and browse at a book store for an hour. Go to the local rose gardens and literally stop and smell the roses. Sit and look at the view or preferably the water/an ocean. Write in a journal. Call a family member that would brighten their day. Volunteer at a local food bank. Watch a comedy, even if you’ve seen it five times already. Look at an old photo album.

In essence…Do anything that is different. Don’t wait to get around to it. Do it now. Come on. Make a change. For yourself. It might just break up the horizon when you look in the rear view mirror and when you think about it later, bring a smile to your face.

Just that little bit of joy that we all need.

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