How a juice menu can change your life

Let me tell you a story about a client I once worked with. We’ll call him Dave (mostly because that was his name).

Dave was a self-described serial entrepreneur. He had recently sold his last business, and was in an in-between phase of sorts.

He loved being an entrepreneur. It was what he did. It felt like his identity. So he didn’t understand why he felt uninspired and sluggish about figuring out his next entrepreneurial adventure.

As we explored that, he realized that a big part of it was that he had been so immersed 24/7 in entrepreneurship for so long that all the other things in his life that had given him juice (things he found energizing and engaging) had gone by the wayside.

I suggested an experiment, starting with making a list of things he found energizing. They could range from the small and snack sized, like 15 minutes with a hobby he loved, to something bigger, like a weekend away. Then pick one each day and do it.  

The goal was to find a way to start easily and consistently incorporating a wider range of energizing experiences.

When he came back the next week, he shared that his “juice menu” as he decided to call it (a stroke of genius, I thought) was starting to have an impact. Over time, the malaise lifted and he started getting more excited again to find his next venture.

Juice menu benefits

I love the juice menu idea for several reasons. First, the simple act of making the list focuses your awareness on what would feel energizing to you. It takes you out of getting-things-done autopilot and into an exploration of what could make life a little juicier. (As an added bonus, that awareness plants the seed for noticing even more possibilities as time goes on.)

Second, it’s snack-sized and doable. It’s much easier to regularly find the time for a little juice when it’s not a big commitment.

Third, you have many options to choose from. You don’t have to think, “Geez, what should I do?” You just take a look at the menu, pick something, and dive in.

And fourth, it’s a great example of the cumulative effect of what I was talking about in my recent post about “taking a pointillist approach” to life – making small, frequent additions to the canvas of your life (with specific kinds of activities or experiences) that cumulatively create a picture.  

Try this: Start making your own juice menu. Brainstorm ways of spending your time that feel energizing and fun. Here’s a list of prompts to get the juices flowing (see what I did there?).

• What hobbies do you enjoy? (e.g., woodworking, photography, scrapbooking, singing)
• What physical activities do you enjoy? (e.g., bicycling, walking, shooting baskets, air hockey)
• What fun projects can you take bite-sized action on?
• What do you want to learn that you can spend small chunks of time on?
• What people do you want to connect with? (e.g., making time for a fifteen-minute phone call)

You can keep adding to the list over time as things occur. Remember that you’re not creating a to-do list, any more than a menu at a restaurant is a to-eat list. It’s all about identifying options to choose from.

Once you have a good initial list, make it your goal for the next week or month to pick one thing from the list every day and do it. Play with different items and activities from the list. Note which ones you feel particularly drawn to. Pay attention to which ones feel most energizing and which ones fall a little flat.

Make it a learning laboratory to see what works best. Do more of what you discover works best for you, and less of what doesn’t.

Day by day, give yourself the gift of juice.