If you may struggle to remember the last time you felt excited by life, say goodbye to these habits

by Lachlan Brown | May 5, 2026, 9:38 pm

There’s a difference between feeling calm and feeling numb. Calm is when you’re grounded, steady, and at peace.

Numb is when life feels like a gray blur—days passing, routines repeating, and nothing making you want to jump out of bed.

If you’ve been in that second category lately, you’re not broken. But you might be carrying around habits that quietly drain your energy and curiosity.

It’s more common than most people realize. Many of us go through stretches where every day feels like a photocopy of the one before. We’re “fine,” but we’re not alive. And we don’t even notice it happening until months have passed.

That’s the thing about these habits—they’re subtle. They sneak into your daily rhythm until your world is smaller, flatter, and quieter than you remember it being.

1. Saying yes to things you don’t actually care about

If you’re constantly agreeing to commitments out of guilt or obligation, you’re basically filling your life with noise.

And when there’s too much noise, the things that could actually light you up don’t have space to get in.

It’s a pattern most of us fall into: saying “yes” to social plans we don’t want, projects that don’t excite us, and favors we have no time for—just because we don’t want to disappoint anyone.

The problem? That’s a slow way to starve yourself of genuine enthusiasm. Every “yes” to something that drains you is a “no” to something that could inspire you.

My friend Rudá Iandê nails it in his book Laughing in the Face of Chaos: “Their happiness is their responsibility, not yours.”

That line is a powerful reminder of how much energy we give away trying to keep other people comfortable.

If you want to feel excited again, you’ve got to clear the mental clutter—and that means protecting your calendar like your life depends on it. Because in a way, it does.

2. Letting autopilot run the show

Wake up. Coffee. Work. Scroll. Eat. TV. Sleep. Repeat.

Familiar? That’s the autopilot trap—and it’s one of the quickest ways to lose your spark for life.

Structure is useful, but when everything is predictable, your brain stops releasing those little hits of dopamine that come from novelty and challenge.

This is why new experiences feel so vivid. The first time you try a food, travel somewhere unfamiliar, or meet someone new, your brain lights up. But if every week looks like the last, you’re depriving yourself of that mental spark.

The fix doesn’t have to be extreme. You don’t need to quit your job and backpack through Asia (unless you want to). You can shake things up in small, manageable ways:

  • Take a different route to work.

  • Rearrange your living space.

  • Try a hobby you’ve never touched before.

  • Swap your go-to café for a new one across town.

When you make micro-changes, you tell your brain: “Pay attention, something’s happening.” And that’s exactly what excitement needs.

3. Avoiding discomfort at all costs

A lot of people confuse excitement with comfort. But the truth is, most of the best things in life come with a little fear mixed in.

The first time you travel solo. Launching a business. Having a vulnerable conversation. That adrenaline isn’t a warning—it’s a sign you’re alive.

Playing it safe—sticking to things you already know you’re good at—feels good in the short term. But over time, life starts to feel flat. Comfort becomes a cage.

Research in psychology supports this. Deliberately leaning into discomfort—signing up for events where you know no one, pitching ideas that scare you, trying physical challenges that feel slightly beyond your limits—is one of the fastest ways to feel engaged with life again. Your days feel sharper. You start anticipating things again.

Fear and excitement share the same physiological roots—your heart races, your breath changes, your senses sharpen.

If you avoid the first, you’ll lose the second. So if you’re bored, ask yourself: When was the last time I did something that made me nervous?

4. Surrounding yourself with people who settle

Energy is contagious. If you spend most of your time with people who complain about life but never change it, it’s going to rub off on you.

That doesn’t mean you should abandon friends just because they’re in a rough season. But if your core group treats curiosity, ambition, and joy like optional extras, you’ll start to lower your own bar without even realizing it.

This dynamic works both ways. When you’re around people who are experimenting with new hobbies, starting side projects, or planning trips, you feel pulled along in their momentum. When you’re around people who see life as something to endure instead of engage with, you feel yourself slowing down.

Seek out people who are curious. Who ask good questions. Who are willing to fail in public. You don’t have to match their pace, but proximity to that kind of energy has a way of waking you up.

5. Ignoring what your body is telling you

We talk about excitement like it’s purely mental, but your body is your earliest warning system.

Low energy, constant fatigue, and that subtle sense of heaviness—they’re all clues that something is off.

Ignoring physical signals kills excitement faster than anything else. Sometimes it’s because you’re overworked. Sometimes because your diet’s out of whack. And sometimes because you haven’t moved your body in days.

Rudá Iandê writes, “Everything that you conceive of as ‘you’—your personality, your memories, your hopes and dreams—is a product of the miraculous creature that is your body.”

That’s a powerful reframe. Your body isn’t just a vehicle for getting through the day—it’s the foundation for every experience you’ll ever have. When you neglect it, you don’t just feel tired. You feel disconnected from life itself.

Start small. Move more. Sleep better. Eat food that fuels you rather than sedates you. When your body feels good, your capacity for excitement naturally rises.

Lachlan Brown

Lachlan Brown is an entrepreneur and co-founder of Brown Brothers Media, a digital publishing network reaching tens of millions of readers monthly. He holds a Graduate Diploma of Psychological Studies from Deakin University, though his real education came afterward: a warehouse job shifting TVs, a stretch of anxiety in his mid-twenties, and the slow discovery that studying the mind is not the same as learning how to live well. He started experimenting with Buddhist principles during breaks at the warehouse and eventually began writing about what he was learning. That writing became Hack Spirit, a widely read personal development site, and his book Hidden Secrets of Buddhism became a bestseller. His work breaks down complex ideas into frameworks people can apply immediately, whether they are navigating a career change, a difficult relationship, or the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it. Lachlan splits his time between Singapore and Saigon. He writes about high-performance routines, decision-making under pressure, digital innovation, and the intersection of Eastern philosophy with modern life. His perspective comes from having built things from scratch, failed at some of them, and learned that clarity comes from practice, not theory.