I’m going to teach you a game called New Place Game that I oftentimes play in my head. Its rules are simple.

1.) Be on a walk that you’ve done a hundred times, like to get coffee or to the gym. This could also be a drive.

2.) Pretend like you are from across the world and are just visiting this place for the first time. Look at everything as if it’s your first time seeing it.  Take in the details, absorb the fact that people live in these houses and get their milk everyday at these stores. Pretty soon you will feel that thrill of being far from your bed and books where no one knows your name.

4.) Expect the thrill to last for a maximum of 30 seconds until you remember who and where you actually are, so appreciate each of these seconds individually.

5.) Return to your life with a new lens, having gone somewhere you’ve never been, having never actually left.