👻 By Degree of Desire to Change 👾 How to Break Out of "I'm Not Dissatisfied, But It's Not Interesting"

Before you know it, it's Sunday night.

I have no complaints.
Work is going okay.
My relationships are, well, not bad.

And yet, it's not interesting.
There's no excitement anywhere.

Today, I'm going to talk about how to break out of that.
According to your "degree of desire to change".

──────────────────
😐 Not dissatisfied, but not interesting

A life without stimulation is actually proof that things are going well.

Life has stabilized,
what you need to do is decided,
and you've stopped failing.

In exchange, "unpredictable things" have quietly disappeared from your life.

The human heart is a bit unreasonable.
It's designed so that if things are too safe, you actually lose your energy.

So, "lack of stimulation" is not a weakness.
Rather, it's a path that everyone who is stable inevitably walks.

The problem is what happens from here.
How you act when you notice this sign.
That alone will change your next five years entirely.

──────────────────
🪑 My 5th year as a working professional, the story of being frozen by a junior's comment

It was my fifth year in the workforce.
At that time, honestly, I was doing well.

I was used to the work, overtime had dropped to about 10 hours a month, and my salary had gone up a little.
I'd spend the weekend on the sofa with my phone, and before I knew it, it was Sunday night.

One Friday, a junior colleague asked me casually,

"What are you doing this weekend?"

I couldn't answer.

It wasn't that I had nothing to do.
I realized in that moment that "I didn't have a single thing I was looking forward to."

And yet—when I thought about this dull Friday continuing forever, I thought, "This is bad!"

I feel like the vague anxiety you're feeling now is close to this.

──────────────────
⏳ What happens if you leave it as it is

A state without stimulation has no pain.
That's why you can leave it alone.

But what happens if you do?

Three years from now, you'll be spending the same Friday night.
Five years from now, probably the same.

And the scariest thing is
that the very feeling of "wanting to change" will wear away and disappear.

You still have that vague anxiety right now.
Now, while you still have that sense of unease, is the last chance to act.

Conversely.
This vague anxiety is also a sign that "it's not too late yet."

So, how do you act?
From here, I'll get into the concrete details.

──────────────────
🎯 The lack of stimulation is just because you're choosing the wrong "way to change"

People who lack stimulation generally fall intotwo patterns.

One is people who aren't moving at all.
The other is people who try to move, aim for a "huge first step," and end up not moving at all.

For example,

"I have to change jobs"
"I have to start a side hustle"
"Maybe I should move"

…These are all things that are hard to get started on.

And then you get a little depressed that you can't move, and go back to your daily routine.
It's this repetition.

But the problem isn't your ability to take action.

You're ignoring "how much you want to change" and choosing a big move right away.
This is the only cause.

Stimulation can be size-adjusted.

So first, decide your "degree of desire to change."
Start from there.

──────────────────
🔧 You won't fail if you choose stimulation by "degree of desire to change"

I'll divide the degree of desire to change into three levels.

★☆☆ (Low)
I don't want to break my current life. But I want just a little bit of change.

★★☆ (Medium)
I don't like things as they are. But I don't have the courage to make a big move yet.

★★★ (High)
I seriously want to change my life. I can't stand the stagnation anymore.

The important thing isn't to aim for the top.

It's to choose the "level that fits you" right now. That's all.

You don't stick with it because you're at a low level but taking high-level actions.
Conversely, you feel unsatisfied because you're at a high level but trying to be satisfied with low-level actions.

From here on, I'll provide methods for each level.
It's okay to just read the part for your degree of desire to change first.

──────────────────
🪜 How to add stimulation by degree of desire to change

Step 1: Degree of desire to change ★☆☆: Mix one "first time" into your life
What people at the low level should do is add just one "new signal" without breaking their life.

The way to do it is simple.

Do just one thing this week that you've never done before.
・Go home by a route you've never taken

・Order a menu item you've never ordered
・Go into a shop you've never entered for just 5 minutes
・Play one song of a genre you don't usually listen to on your way home
・Skip the elevator and try taking the stairs down
Just this much.

You might think, "Does that have any meaning?"

It does, actually.
The brain automatically processes "things it knows" and doesn't even leave them in memory.

You don't remember the steps for brushing your teeth every morning, right? Like that, repetition disappears from memory.
That's why it feels like every day passes in an instant.
But for a "first time," the brain starts processing, thinking, "Oh, what's this?"

Only in that moment does the density of time increase.
The reason days felt so long when you were a child was because every day was full of "first times."
Where you stumble is here.

Most people make the "first time" too big and fail.
You get fired up, saying, "Okay, I'm going to start my first hobby class," and it ends in three days. It's a common story.
So, we'll go the opposite way.

Make it ridiculously small.
Limit the "first time" to "something that ends in 5 minutes."
Try to imagine it.

A sunset you've never seen, at a corner you've never seen, on a road you don't usually take.
Just that makes today "a day different from yesterday."


The point here:Every night before you go to sleep, recall one "first time" from today.
If you add this, the stimulation will be fixed as a "memory," and the effect will double.
Stimulation is more about frequency than quantity. And it becomes more intense through "reflection."



Step 2: Degree of desire to change ★★☆: Shift your environment "just one bit"
People at the medium level don't change their actions, but the "place they are put."Humans are creatures that are pulled by their environment rather than changing through willpower.

Even if you're on a diet, if there are sweets in front of you, you'll eat them. Conversely, if they aren't in the house, you won't.

It's not that your willpower is weak; the environment is just making you do that.
So, don't try to change yourself.
Shift your surroundings just one bit.

・On your day off, go outside your usual living area (the next town, a station you've never been to)
・Show your face once a month at a place where you meet people with no conflicting interests (study groups, events, hobby gatherings, co-working meetups)

・Touch books or videos of genres you don't usually touch at all once a week
・Try working for just one hour at a cafe you don't usually go to
・Follow 5 people on social media who live completely different lives from you right now
The point is to put yourself in "unknown people, unknown places."
Why does this work?

When you only commute between work and home, the stories you hear, the scenery you see, and the emotions that come out are mostly the same.

If the input is the same, then of course the output is the same.
This is the number one cause of stimulation disappearing.
When you change your environment, what "comes in" changes automatically.
Then, without trying hard, what you think and feel will change.

Where you stumble is here.
"I don't know anyone there," or "The hurdle seems high," so you end up not going.

I understand. But at first, "you don't have to talk."
Just putting your body in that place is fine. Just breathing the air and coming back is already shifted enough.
Try to imagine it.
Yourself, standing in an unknown place once a month.

Half a year later, yourself, having more things you can talk about, like "I've been doing this lately."
It's a continuous path to there.

The point here:

Don't choose based on "whether it's useful."Choose just because it's "a little interesting" or "something I'm curious about."
Stimulation is outside of productivity. The moment you choose based on profit and loss, it becomes "work" and is no longer stimulation.

Step 3: Degree of desire to change ★★★: Make a "promise" you can't turn back from


People at the high level don't rely on willpower.
When you seriously want to change, you throw yourself into a "mechanism where you have no choice but to do it."・Declare to people that you will "do it" (to someone you can't be wishy-washy with)

・Pay money in advance (courses, gym, tickets, anything)

・Sign up for something with a deadline (tournaments, recitals, contests, applications)

・Involve someone to do it with (create a state where if you slack off, it causes trouble for the other person)
The trick is to crush "your future self's escape route" in advance.
Why go this far?
Motivation isn't left on the day of.

Even if you're burning with "Okay, I'm going to change" in this moment, the you of three days later on a tired night is a different person.

That other person will 100% slack off. I guarantee it.
So, create a "situation where you move even if you don't have motivation, while you still have motivation."
This is the only way for serious people.
This was also how I broke out of stagnation.

I told people I would "post on note every day."
Once I said it, it wouldn't look good if I didn't post.

It was tough at first. There were nights I wrote even without any ideas.

But that "inability to turn back" was the stimulation I hadn't had in a long time.

Before I knew it, I've been able to post every day for about two months!!


Where you stumble is here.There are people who make a "big promise" right away and get crushed.That's not ★3, that's reckless.

Make your first promise a "size you can reach by stretching a little."
Don't sign up for a full marathon, sign up for a 5km race first. That's fine.

The point here:


Make the declaration and payment "on the same day your desire to change has increased."If you sleep on it for one night, people will definitely return to their daily routine.While you have the fever, block the escape route. Just by doing that, you've already started moving.

For those who have a habit of cooling down before starting, do this ↓

──────────────────
🌱 Don't ignore small feelings of unease


Thank you for reading this far.

There was only one thing I wanted to convey.

Stimulation is not "something that falls from the sky," but "something you can create by choosing the size."

I'm not dissatisfied, but it's not interesting.
That vague anxiety is not a bad thing.

It's a quiet sign that says, "It's okay to start moving soon."

If you keep ignoring this sign, you'll probably be spending the same Friday night five years from now.

But just by picking up one thing, the way you see every day will start to change from today.


──────────────────
🚀 Just one thing today


Finally, one piece of homework.

Once you close this article, first decide your "degree of desire to change."
Is it ★1, 2, or 3?

And then, from the step for that level, do "just one thing" you can do today.

For ★1, change your route home.
For ★2, include one unknown place in your plans for this weekend.
For ★3, declare it to someone right now.

You don't have to do it all.
Just one is fine.

That "one thing" will be the stimulation you haven't had in a long time.

May your day today be just a little different from yesterday.