The Mid-Year Slump Is Real. Here’s How to Exit Your Flop Era

If your summer energy slid off the playlist and straight into static, welcome to the flop era. On a recent solo episode of House Guest, host Kenzie Elizabeth talks about the heavy lull so many of us hit midyear and how she’s climbing out of it with deliberate, doable shifts.

Elizabeth doesn’t sugarcoat the slump. She describes a specific drag that stacks mood, heat, hormones, and grief into one messy bundle: “There’s nothing you can do to fix it. It’s so dark. I feel so out of it, so all over the place.”

If you’re wondering where your motivation went and when it’s coming back, here’s our guide for climbing out of your flop era.

Flop Era: How To Get Out Of It

What a flop era is (and why naming it helps)

Kenzie calls out the hormonal cocktail behind the mood. The summertime sadness, the feeling that you can’t do anything right, the impending existential dread—it’s all signs of a flop era.  

Then she says what many of us think but don’t say out loud: “I’ve been feeling a little bit like I’m a little bit in a flop era.” And haven’t we all? Naming the season—without drama or self-judgment—creates space to change it.

A flop era implies temporary feelings, something you’re moving through rather than stuck in permanently. The reframing matters because it removes the pressure to fix it immediately. Instead, we’re acknowledging that sometimes we cycle through low periods, and the goal isn’t to avoid them entirely (who can?) but to navigate them more intentionally.

Small energy shifts that move the needle

When the house feels like a mood, Kenzie makes the atmosphere work for her. “Get out of a rut, get out of my summertime sad goodness,” she says, adding that watching Taylor Swift live, cleaning her house, and going on an organizing spree to get her in the headspace.

If none of those things are your jam or your jelly, find what is. The point isn’t perfection; it’s motion. “You need to set the mind, clean it up, light some candles, get out of bed, put on the right playlist,” she says.

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A post shared by House Guest with Kenzie Elizabeth (@thehouseguestpod)

Move, cook, call your people

Kenzie uses small, repeatable anchors to reset her baseline. “I always can tell I’m steering off into a really bad headspace the second I stop cooking,” she says. “The second I started cooking, I was like, oh, my God, I feel amazing.”

She also makes an effort to call her friends and to put on music that feeds her soul. In her case, it’s “rage country,” but you can find what suits you. The point is not to follow Kenzie’s specific moves. It’s to do what works for you, finding small actions that make you feel more like yourself again and leaning into them when you’re off-kilter.

Your exit route from the flop era

If you’re ready to move, borrow Kenzie’s template: Clean one room with a favorite concert film playing, cook a straightforward meal, send one call or voice note, and schedule one low-stakes plan that makes you laugh. When that old comparison loop starts, remember the point isn’t perfection. It’s about motion and returning to the list that lifts you when you’re stuck.

Sorry, but you can’t avoid a flop era entirely. Seasons shift—energy returns. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is acknowledge where you are, take the next right step, and trust that this too will pass. As Kenzie signs off, she points to what’s coming next: “Next week I’m back, and we are gonna go through things in life that haven’t worked out that I’m now so grateful for.” That’s the real framework here. Consider that your north star as you step out of your own summer static—one small win at a time.

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