Two questions to reset your mindset at midyear

At the midpoint of the year, most people have been running nonstop for months. Work, family, obligations. Time moves so fast that it is easy to miss everything already accomplished and to realize, perhaps, that there is nothing on the horizon making the second half feel worth anticipating. Mel Robbins offers a simple exercise: two questions that work as a reset.

The first question: what are you proud of this year?

This question puts the brakes on autopilot. It forces you to look back — not to judge yourself, but to acknowledge what you have already done. Robbins shares a story from her producer Cameron, who asked her brother this question and got the answer "nothing." He had just been accepted into a PhD program. He had simply forgotten because he was too busy moving forward.

Robbins shares her own example: during three months on tour across four countries with nearly 100,000 audience members, what she is most proud of is not the tour itself, but managing her stress differently. Before leaving, her therapist warned: "If you get on that plane with the stress level you have right now, you are going to miss the entire experience." That prompted her to act. She prioritized sleep, good food, daily movement, and emotional regulation. The result was that she stayed present, calm, and able to remember moments she would otherwise have let slip by.

Pride does not have to be for something big. It can be having a hard conversation, showing up to work every day, starting therapy, or keeping your spending in check. It all counts.

The neuroscience of habituation

To explain why this kind of pause matters, Robbins draws on research by neuroscientist Tali Sharot, director of the Affective Brain Lab at University College London. Her key concept is habituation: when the brain gets used to something, it stops reacting. Not only to the negative, but to the good as well.

If you always follow the same routines, take the same routes, talk to the same people, and face the same challenges, your brain stops noticing the positive details of your life. Your home, your partner, your health — you still value them, but you no longer feel them. You have been numbed by routine.

The antidote, according to Sharot, is novelty. Something different on the calendar reactivates the brain, gives it somewhere good to go mentally, and restores the sense that life is more than a to-do list.

The second question: what are you looking forward to?

This question points forward. If the answer is "nothing" or "I do not have time to think about that," it is a signal: there is no novelty on the horizon, and that contributes directly to days feeling flat and repetitive.

It does not have to be a major event. It could be a wedding, a child coming home, a hiking trail, picking up the guitar again, or scheduling time with friends you have not seen in a while. Robbins lists her own: a whitewater rafting trip through the Grand Canyon with family and friends, several groups of friends visiting over the summer, and a night at Fenway Park where she will throw the ceremonial first pitch.

The research on anticipation is clear: having something to look forward to helps you escape the daily routine, reminds you of who you are beyond your responsibilities, and gives you energy to face current challenges.

How to use the two questions

They are a reset, not an analysis. They do not require planning, documentation, or a list of goals. They simply pause and direct attention toward what already exists and what can be created.

Robbins sums it up this way: if you change nothing, nothing changes. Putting something on the calendar is not a luxury — it is a tool. And recognizing what you have already done this year is not vanity. It is the most honest way of seeing how much you are carrying and how well you are doing it.