I recently learned of the phrase “bore-out,” which is the little sister of burnout.

Bore-out is an emotional state characterized by feeling unfocused, unstimulated, and restless, but lacking the desire to engage, according to Lindsay Kohler in a Forbes article.

Unlike people with burnout, who might collapse due to physical and emotional symptoms, bore-out can be a long, drawn out state.

Adam Grant gives us some hints of how to cure bore-out, and he points to finding meaning as a source of fuel.

When taking restorative breaks, don’t just avoid tasks that burn you out, include people and projects that fire you up.

“Detatching from stress prevents exhaustion. Attaching to purpose elevates energy,” Grant shares.

Purpose is powerful because it is bigger than us.

Purpose transcends the individual.

Okay, I hear you, Audrey, you say.

But what if finding a sense of purpose isn’t immediately accessible to me?

I’ve got you.

Start looking for awe.

Become zealous for it.

Build a daily practice of finding awe around you.

Awe seems to orient us to devote ourselves to things outside of our individual selves, according to Stanford Professor, Dacher Keltner.

Awe can be an everyday experience. Most people experience it two to three times a week.

But what if you experienced awe once, twice, three times a day?

What might start to shift for you?

In Keltner’s book, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, he outlines eight experiences that give us a sense of awe, he calls them the Eight Wonders of Life:

1. Stories of other people’s courage, kindness, courage, or overcoming

2. Collective effervescence, a phrase coined by Émile Durkheim that speaks to the feeling of energy and harmony when people are engaged in a shared purpose

3. Nature, often a cataclysmic event (if you haven’t already, cancel your Monday afternoon meetings and pick up a pair of ISO 12321-2 solar shades so you can tune into the solar eclipse)

4. Music

5. Visual Design

6. Spirituality and Religion

7. Life and Death

8. Epiphany

Keltner and his team observed that people who experience what they call “everyday awe” did so in finding the extraordinary in the ordinary: a friend’s generosity to a homeless person in the streets; the scent of a flower; looking at a leafy tree’s play of light and shadow on a sidewalk.

Awe is completely accessible to you.

You really don’t have to go further than noticing the sunlight coming through a window or a kind act from another person.

The key word, though, is noticing.

If you haven’t noticed something that makes you feel a sense of awe in quite some time, what does that tell you about your current state?

I have two words for you: start noticing.

Start paying attention.

Awe is everywhere.

Awe can be an everyday experience.

Become zealous for it.

When you experience awe more regularly, it activates your vagus nerve.

This is important because the vagus nerve activates different organs throughout the body (such as the heart, lungs, liver and digestive organs).

You have surely experienced a feeling of warm expansion in your chest when you attended a sports event or listened to a beautiful piece of music.

The vagus nerve is used to counteract the flight or flight response.

And when you’re in fight or flight your vision narrows, allowing you to escape a threat, but it also keeps you from spotting new possibilities.

So when you experience awe, you expand your ability to see possibility.

And your ability to spot fresh possibilities is part of your competitive advantage.

Start with everyday awe.

What do you notice?

Love,

Audrey