WEBVTT - One chapter a day

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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<v Speaker 1>Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's tip is that by breaking big goals into doable steps,

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<v Speaker 1>you can do more than you think. War and Peace

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<v Speaker 1>has three hundred sixty one very short chapters. Read one

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<v Speaker 1>a day, and you'll read the book in a year.

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<v Speaker 1>Over the years, one of my most useful insights into

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<v Speaker 1>time has been that we often overestimate what we can

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<v Speaker 1>do in the short run, but underestimate in the long run.

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<v Speaker 1>People create fifty item to do lists for a random

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<v Speaker 1>Tuesday and then feel like miserable failures when they don't

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<v Speaker 1>get through them. And yet seemingly huge goals can involve

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<v Speaker 1>doing very little on any given day. An example I

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<v Speaker 1>often use on this podcast is writing a book. An

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<v Speaker 1>eight word manuscript seems very long, but if you plan

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<v Speaker 1>to work two hundred forty days in a year, that's

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<v Speaker 1>about three thirty three words a day for a finished draft.

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<v Speaker 1>We are already a hundred fifty words into this episode.

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<v Speaker 1>You could knock this out while your coffee is brewing

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<v Speaker 1>in the morning. Or consider distance running. Being able to

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<v Speaker 1>run twenty plus miles at a time seems daunting to

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<v Speaker 1>someone who's just managed to run her first full mile,

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<v Speaker 1>But if you add a mere half mile each week

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<v Speaker 1>to your longest distance, you'd be marathon ready by the

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<v Speaker 1>end of the year. Many people claim to have no

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<v Speaker 1>time to read, but if you could find fifteen minutes

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<v Speaker 1>every day, maybe scattered in those bits of time while

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<v Speaker 1>waiting for meetings to start or for lunch to heat

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<v Speaker 1>up in the microwave, you could read ninety one hours

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<v Speaker 1>in a year. Since a lot of popular book take

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<v Speaker 1>around four hours to read, this is more than twenty

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<v Speaker 1>books in a year, not bad at all for what

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<v Speaker 1>would otherwise be wasted time. Or you could even aim

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<v Speaker 1>for something more ambitious. Jeremy Anderberg, who runs a popular

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<v Speaker 1>newsletter devoted to reading, is doing a project this year

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<v Speaker 1>called the Big Read, or he leads a group through

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<v Speaker 1>reading War in Peace. This doorstop of a book is huge.

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<v Speaker 1>The copy I'm looking at right now has fourteen hundred

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<v Speaker 1>fifty five pages, but Tolstoy, bless him, elected to write

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<v Speaker 1>this book in three hundred sixty one short chapters. You

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<v Speaker 1>can do the math. Each one is just four pages

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<v Speaker 1>or so that can be read in under ten minutes.

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<v Speaker 1>As long as you keep going, you will be done

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<v Speaker 1>with War in Peace by late December, without even trying

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<v Speaker 1>to find gobs of time in life, we can do

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<v Speaker 1>so much with the approach of one chapter a day.

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<v Speaker 1>Each day, we can do very small things, sometimes almost

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<v Speaker 1>imperceptible things. We keep our expectations very low. But when

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<v Speaker 1>we meet those expectations again and again, and when we

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<v Speaker 1>just keep going, we can write books, run marathons, and yes,

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<v Speaker 1>conquer War in Peace and still have a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>time left over. So what big goals are you looking

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<v Speaker 1>to accomplish? One chapter at a time, break it down,

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<v Speaker 1>stick with it, and you'll be amazed at what you

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<v Speaker 1>can do in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening,

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<v Speaker 1>and here's to making the most of our time. Hey everybody,

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<v Speaker 1>I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

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<v Speaker 1>your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

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<v Speaker 1>me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod

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<v Speaker 1>that's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D.

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<v Speaker 1>You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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<v Speaker 1>Podcast at i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast

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<v Speaker 1>is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much.

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<v Speaker 1>I look forward to staying in Touch Before Breakfast is

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<v Speaker 1>a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from

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