Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 2: Today's tip is to consider being generous with your time.
Speaker 2: While boundaries are wise, people are generally a good use
Speaker 2: of time, so be generous with time when you can.
Speaker 2: There is a famous passage from First Corinthians that has
Speaker 2: read at weddings about love. You probably remember how this
Speaker 2: starts from the last wedding you went to, with the
Speaker 2: statement that love is patient. I was pondering recently what
Speaker 2: it means for love to be patient, and I realized
Speaker 2: that fundamentally, patience means being generous with time. When love
Speaker 2: is patient, it means we aren't rushing off to the
Speaker 2: next thing.
Speaker 3: We are giving people enough time to be heard and seen.
Speaker 3: This plays out in all sorts of ways. It can
Speaker 3: mean chatting with a teenager even though it is bedtime
Speaker 3: and you are tired. It can mean listening to your
Speaker 3: spouse as worries even though you are annoyed about something
Speaker 3: else here she did. It can mean taking time to
Speaker 3: encourage a direct report, even in the middle of a
Speaker 3: packed day. It can mean graciously listening to your elderly
Speaker 3: neighbor tell that same story about her grandchild. Again. Time
Speaker 3: is ultimately limited, and so this generosity is costly in
Speaker 3: a way that being profligate with money is not. You
Speaker 3: can make more money, you cannot make more time. And
Speaker 3: so a lot of time management literature talks about saying
Speaker 3: no more often, and perhaps there is something to that.
Speaker 3: But when we can say yes to the people in
Speaker 3: our lives, it strengthens those relationships in a way that
Speaker 3: little else can. I fundamentally believe that people are a
Speaker 3: good use of time, and the good news is that
Speaker 3: a few minutes invested in generosity is often paid back
Speaker 3: in profound ways. I love to get emails from listeners
Speaker 3: and readers, and I respond to almost all of it.
Speaker 3: As a result of spending just a few minutes on
Speaker 3: those emails here and there, I have made some great
Speaker 3: friends and professional acquaintances over the years because of those connections.
Speaker 3: Talk about a huge payback. Many of us have had
Speaker 3: the experience of encouraging a young person in our field.
Speaker 3: That young person then goes on to become a total
Speaker 3: rock star and a font of all sorts of opportunities. Again,
Speaker 3: that is a big payback for what was probably not
Speaker 3: a huge investment of time. Now, generosity doesn't need to
Speaker 3: be a blank check, and I am sure that sometimes
Speaker 3: generosity is abused. But even if being generous with time
Speaker 3: sometimes feels like a waste of time, the truth is
Speaker 3: that we waste time on all kinds of things. As
Speaker 3: it is. I doubt that listening to a neighbor's story
Speaker 3: is a much worse use of time than scrolling around
Speaker 3: online for a few minutes. The former can spread some
Speaker 3: serious joy. Love is patient and we all need more
Speaker 3: love in the world. In the meantime, This is Laura.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 3: our time.
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can
Speaker 1: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just
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Speaker 1: Breakfast Pod that's b E the number four then Breakfast pod.
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Speaker 3: At Before Breakfast.
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Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
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