Your Summer Reset for More Energy, Fun, & Happiness (Backed by Science)

What It Covers

Mel Robbins returns from a 56-day, 15-city tour reaching nearly 100,000 listeners and guides a midyear reset using two questions: what you're proud of so far this year, and what you're looking forward to. Neuroscientist Tali Sharot's research on habituation and anticipation underpins why both questions matter for energy and happiness.

Key Questions Answered

• •Midyear Reset Question 1 – Acknowledge Progress: Deliberately ask yourself what you've done this year that you're proud of. Most people skip this entirely, staying locked in forward momentum without crediting completed work. Even small wins count: a difficult conversation handled well, consistent bill payments, showing up for someone else. Naming one specific accomplishment activates self-recognition and builds the psychological foundation needed to sustain effort through the second half of the year.
• •Midyear Reset Question 2 – Schedule Anticipation: Ask yourself what you're looking forward to between now and year's end. If the answer is nothing, that absence is diagnostic — it explains why days feel flat and identical. The fix is concrete: pick one specific event, date, or experience and put it on the calendar. Anticipation of a future positive event gives the brain a destination beyond daily routine and restores a sense of personal identity beyond responsibilities.
• •Habituation Science (Tali Sharot): Neuroscientist Tali Sharot's research shows the brain habituates — it stops reacting to familiar patterns, including positive ones. This means you can love your home, partner, or health but feel emotionally flat because your brain has downgraded its response to the familiar. The antidote is novelty: something new or different on the calendar interrupts the habituation loop and reactivates the brain's reward response to everyday life.
• •Stress Management Before High-Stakes Events: Before a demanding 56-day tour, Mel's therapist warned that entering a high-stress situation already stressed guarantees missing the experience entirely. The structured response: prioritize sleep, eat quality food, exercise daily regardless of location, significantly reduce alcohol, and maintain deliberate emotional awareness. This protocol allowed sustained calm across 21 shows in four countries, demonstrating that pre-event self-regulation determines whether you're present for peak experiences.
• •Mindset Framing Changes Physical Outcomes: During a hiking trip to Mount Katahdin, Mel forgot her broken-in boots and was forced to climb in brand-new, stiff farm-store replacements. By actively telling herself the boots would perform well rather than catastrophizing, she completed the 12-hour climb with zero blisters. The principle: the internal story you choose about an underprepared or difficult situation directly shapes the physical and emotional outcome you experience.
• •Reclaiming Lapsed Activities Creates Forward Momentum: When answering what to look forward to, consider reviving something you used to do rather than only seeking new experiences. Activities abandoned due to life accumulation — children, work, aging parents — often reconnect you to core identity faster than novel pursuits. Mel's Grand Canyon rafting trip revives a pre-kids camping and outdoor lifestyle. Identifying one lapsed activity, then texting one person to join you, is the minimum viable action to restart it.