☀️ my brain just needed a roadside octopus i guess

I stood in a dark tunnel at an aquarium I’d driven past twenty times before. I had no idea what was around the next corner, and I have never felt more alive. 😆

Relief, honestly. I genuinely didn't know what came next. When was the last time that happened?

Here's the downside of being a habit coach who loves repeatable, simple systems: my life can get very, very repetitive. That's great for the dishes. The dishes are real. Dish Zero was the first system I ever made, and it saved my sanity because I never want to think about the dishes again.

But the more systems I added, the more I worried if I might ever overcorrect.

I don't know how much novelty the average human needs, but I think I need at least 10% more than that. 😆

If there's no trip on the books and nothing new coming up, I get a little panicky.

I mean I'm not like a novelty monster. I've been married 20 years. I know how to stick with things long after they stop being shiny. I'm just a happier person with a little bit of new.

Which brings me to birthday season. I have three girls, and all three birthdays land in a three week span. Every year I do Birthday Clues, and while I was prepping this year I had a small panic: Is there anything new left? Have I done every kid activity in the area?

Then I remembered Branson.

If you've never been to Branson, Missouri, its main export is novelty. Drive down 76 and you'll see a giant chicken, a giant King Kong, the Titanic. (These are real examples.)

Back when my kids were tiny and I was in my third trimester with zero ideas left, I'd drive 76 and make it a scavenger hunt: "Who can find the giant rooster? Shout it when you see it!" (While staying completely seated and buckled into your carseat prisons.)

This time I went looking for a coupon and remembered that Branson had an aquarium which I skip over because how could it beat our own (closer) award-winning Wonders of Wildlife? But I wasn't looking for better. I was looking for new. And. it. delivered. Nora and I wandered through not knowing what was coming next, and it was great.

I asked her for her verdict, and she said “Wonders of Wildlife is impressive, but this one was PLAYFUL.”

PLAYFUL. Nailed it.

More play.

Last week I turned off my Maps app just to see if I could find an address on my own. My thought was, "Maybe I'll get lost, but hey, that'd be kind of fun.”

I know. I'm WILD.

This week's challenge: The One New Thing

Pick something this week and change one small variable. A few ideas:

Order the thing you've never ordered at your usual spot.
Visit a different version of a place you love.
Take your walk at a different time or in a different neighborhood.
Listen to a genre you'd never pick, for one song.
Drive a different way home, or leave Maps off for a trip.
Say yes to the weird local thing.

Keep the systems for the dishes. Save the novelty for the parts of life you want to remember.

The science

In a 2020 study in Nature Neuroscience, researchers tracked people's locations with GPS for a few months and asked them about their mood. On days people moved around to more varied places, they reported feeling happier, and brain scans showed that link was tied to connections between the memory and reward areas of the brain. Novelty isn't just fun. Your brain seems to count it as a reward.

Mindset script

"I can love my routines and still crave something new. Needing novelty isn't a flaw. It's information. Today I'll give myself one small surprise and see how it feels."

Bonus journal prompt

When was the last time you genuinely didn't know what came next? How did it feel, and what's one tiny way to get that feeling this week?

xoxo, Katie Day, your habit hype girl (write back soon)

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