Magical Thinking

13 Easy Ways to Jumpstart Your Dull Life

How to make sure your New Year is better than more of the same.

Posted December 29, 2018

Today's cartoon is about the bad habit of treating each day just like the last one, in front of the TV, Tivo, or watching dog videos on YouTube. Let's not do that.

Psychology Today listed 5 ways to get out of a rut. The author explains that one of the reasons we get INTO a rut is because of intermittent reinforcement: maybe one or two lines were funny in that sitcom, but do you really want to watch the whole rerun? Or spend any more time with someone who only listens to you now and again?

One of her 5 suggestions for change is to Set Attainable Goals. Try a new show, or even a new channel. Or -- and this is a hard one -- what if you leave your apartment and make contact with someone on the outside?

She also suggests using common sense, rather than magical thinking: that because you do A, that's why B happens to you. That could be superstition. (And BF Skinner can just stop experimenting with pigeons Right Now.)

Forbes has 8 more tips on how to shake things up.

#1 is to work hard. Geez, Forbes, you gotta do better than that.

#5. What do you think of this one?

In areas of giftedness, work on your strength. In areas of character, work on your weaknesses.

That sounds too hard to me, so I'll skip it.

#7 says to Blame it On Your Best Friends. (or something similar.) The quote is: "You're the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with." That sounds weird to me, but could it be true?

But my favorite is #8:

“You get what you get ready for.”

This is my own personal ideology, which I've boiled down to: Be Ready For, and it works in any situation.

So here are your 13 ideas on how to become more involved in your own life. Are any of them worth trying? Think of the alternative - don't get bored.