Burned Out & Bored? This One Trick Hacked My Creativity (and My Life)

Picture this: You’re staring at a blank screen, the cursor blinking an accusatory rhythm. Your brain, once a creative playground, now resembles a dusty attic filled with cobwebs and half-finished projects.

You might be burned out, your passion reduced to smoldering embers. Or maybe you’re bored and stuck in a monotonous routine that would make a sloth yawn. Either way, your spark is gone, and that one-trick pony called “inspiration” refuses to budge.

I get it.

I’ve been there. Trapped in that soul-sucking limbo where exhaustion warps into ennui, every day feels like an endless Tuesday. But here’s the juicy secret I stumbled upon: there’s no “one-trick hack” to solve it all. The real magic lies in a mindset shift. And the key to that shift? It’s a tiny, counterintuitive word called Curiosity.

Yes, the same curiosity that made you poke at ants as a kid—the one that fueled your “why?” phase. It turns out that playful inquisitiveness holds the power to crack open the creativity vault—even when you’re feeling more like burnt toast than a bonfire.

I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.

-Eleanor Roosevelt-

Here’s how it worked for me:

Stop beating yourself up for the blank page. Instead, celebrate the unknown. Let go of the pressure to “figure it out” and welcome the space for exploration. Curiosity thrives on uncertainty, so treat it like a blank canvas, not a void.

Look at everything with fresh eyes. Imagine you’re a visitor in your city, noticing tiny details you usually overlook. The way sunlight falls on a leaf, the rhythm of raindrops on the window, the quirky expression of a passerby—each becomes a potential spark.