Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to come up with some better option bes.
Speaker 1: When your fallback option is good enough, you become a
Speaker 1: lot less attached to option A. This tranquility can prevent
Speaker 1: a lot of anxiety and unhappiness. So over the past
Speaker 1: few weeks, a lot of high school seniors have heard
Speaker 1: back from colleges on whether they have been accepted or rejected.
Speaker 1: When young people apply to very selective schools, counselors usually
Speaker 1: advise them to apply to a safety school. This is
Speaker 1: a school that you know you will get into. If
Speaker 1: you choose this option be well. Knowing you will get
Speaker 1: a good edge regardless of any other acceptances or rejections,
Speaker 1: can make the whole application process less stressful. I will add,
Speaker 1: having been through this now with my family, that having
Speaker 1: an option be that you know about early is even better.
Speaker 1: One of our flagship state schools here in Pennsylvania does
Speaker 1: rolling admissions, So my son sent in his application in
Speaker 1: September of his senior year, and we knew in early
Speaker 1: October that he had a very good option for the
Speaker 1: next year. Regardless of how everything else turned out. Now,
Speaker 1: as adults, we aren't necessarily thinking about safety schools, but
Speaker 1: the same concept is helpful when we face situations that
Speaker 1: may or may not go as intended. A few years
Speaker 1: ago I was planning to take my older two boys
Speaker 1: to Scotland for a long weekend, and due to a
Speaker 1: string of terrible airline issues, we never wound up leaving
Speaker 1: Newark Airport. That was frustrating, for sure, but we had
Speaker 1: ideas of back up adventures for the weekend and wound
Speaker 1: up having a really good time seeing the Bronx Zoo,
Speaker 1: going out for a nice stick dinner, and even having
Speaker 1: a British tea experience at a local tea place. It
Speaker 1: wasn't in Edinburgh, but option B wasn't exactly bad either.
Speaker 1: Scoons are great anywhere. I always say that anyone can
Speaker 1: create a perfect schedule. True time management masters make resilient
Speaker 1: schedules where life keeps moving forward even when life doesn't
Speaker 1: go as intended. A key part of that is having
Speaker 1: better option bs. You certainly hope that Option A will happen,
Speaker 1: but if it doesn't, what is your Option B. If
Speaker 1: Option B is good enough, you won't fret so much
Speaker 1: about the possibility of option A not happening, and this
Speaker 1: can play out in all sorts of scenarios. You plan
Speaker 1: to go to the beach, but you know the weekend
Speaker 1: weather looks iffy, so you've already decided that if it
Speaker 1: winds up braining, your family will go to the science
Speaker 1: museum instead. You all love the science museum, so you
Speaker 1: will have fun regardless. Or maybe you are planning on
Speaker 1: applying for a new job. You really hope you'll get it,
Speaker 1: but you've already figured out that you want a change,
Speaker 1: so you are having a discussion with your manager about
Speaker 1: moving to a different set of projects. You are excited
Speaker 1: about that move, so even if you don't get the
Speaker 1: new job, your work life is going to be a
Speaker 1: lot more interesting. A few months ago, I was trying
Speaker 1: to get home when my flight was canceled. That was inconvenient,
Speaker 1: but my option B was staying with a friend who
Speaker 1: lived in town, and that was fun to get more
Speaker 1: time together and to catch up. In any scenario where
Speaker 1: things might not go as planned, brainstorm a few really
Speaker 1: good option bes. What would still make you happy? What
Speaker 1: would you still be looking forward to? Knowing you have
Speaker 1: good option bees? Will make you more resilient even if
Speaker 1: Option A happens. Just fine. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.