This post’s for Rachael - an old friend of mine who was recently bemoaning the fact that, since taking on the financial burdens of being a home-owner, life has become dull. She no longer has the wherewithal to add spice to her life in the ways she once did.

That comment was too much of a challenge….and my feverish brain immediately went into overdrive, imagining ways to make Rachael’s life (and anyone else’s for that matter) more thrilling.

Of course, if you’re out to create excitement in your life, you first need to define what excitement means to you. Is it daring? Fun? Sociable? Does it mean new projects or places unknown? So ponder that one, then - if your life could use a little lift - tackle this portentous list and, by the time you reach the bottom, I guarantee your life will be a touch livelier than it is now. J

1. Make a vision board of everything that epitomises excitement for you and invite some of that into your life.

2. Google ‘exciting things to do for free’. You’ll find a ton of stuff: lists of galleries and museums that cost nothing to look around; glorious gardens you can trudge around without spending a farthing; free concerts and festivals; TV shows that give out audience tickets gratis; websites on which you can register to get free tickets to film premieres; and a whole host of other ideas.

3. Find an excitable chum and challenge each other to do one truly jolly thing a month. Or, better still, why not arrange surprises for each other? Take turns to plan thrilling little adventures to be undertaken together - or separately if you happen to live several hundred (or thousand) miles apart. (Here’s one to start you off. Go on a £5 shopping expedition. Or £10. You set the limit. Choose a quaint little town or a big, bustling city. But the rule is to have as much fun or acquire as many treasures as you can for the price.)

4. Choose one occasion each month to celebrate. It can be Midsummer’s Day in June, or the anniversary of acquiring your pet tortoise in September. Then put your brain to work and come up with cheap and superbly cheerful ways to do it.

5. Make a list of ‘Things I have never done but would like to’ and see how many you can tick off your list by the end of the year.

6. Declare this ‘The Year of….’ (see this post) and cram as much of your chosen activity into the months ahead as possible.

7. Challenge yourself to learn a new skill. You never know where it will lead you.

8. Become a guerilla artist or poet. Draw small pictures or pen a verse or two - or just copy out favourite quotations - then slip them into the pages of library books or leave them where strangers will chance upon them….and brighten someone’s day.

9. Arrange to meet an old friend at the regional sculpture park. ;)

10. Start a blog!