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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is to speak up about what you would like

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Speaker 1: to do. Hopefully you will get to do it, and

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Speaker 1: you'll avoid being asked to do something that you don't

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Speaker 1: want to do. So I think we have probably all

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Speaker 1: had the experience of being invited to do things that

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Speaker 1: we are not that excited about. You're getting together with

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Speaker 1: a friend for dinner without kids, and she suggests a

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Speaker 1: place with an extensive kids menu rather than one of

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Speaker 1: the thousand other places you wish you could go. Occasionally,

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Speaker 1: your boss gives you what she thinks is a plumb

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Speaker 1: assignment to go to a conference, but it is right

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Speaker 1: before your son's high school graduation when you would much

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Speaker 1: rather be home. The board chair of a nonprofit you

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Speaker 1: love asks you to serve on the fundraising committee, which

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Speaker 1: is nice, but you had wanted to get more involved

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Speaker 1: on the program side of things. For all of this,

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Speaker 1: it can be hard to figure out whether to accept

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Speaker 1: or say no, or try to negotiate. But here is

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Speaker 1: another approach. I have found that by making an offer early,

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Speaker 1: you can preempt less appealing invitations, say what you would

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Speaker 1: like to do, and you are less likely to be

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Speaker 1: asked for something else. So if you are an active

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Speaker 1: volunteer somewhere, let the leaders know exactly what you would

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Speaker 1: like to do. They are probably not sitting around wondering

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Speaker 1: if someone who works as an accountant actually wants to

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Speaker 1: plan the gala and try out a new set of skills.

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Speaker 1: They assume you want to help with the books. So

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Speaker 1: if that is not the case, preemptively offer to serve

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Speaker 1: on the gala committee, and you will most likely fend

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Speaker 1: off the more obvious request that is going to be

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Speaker 1: coming your way. You can take a similar approach at

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Speaker 1: work too, though of course, there may be times that

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Speaker 1: you need to do something that is not your top choice.

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Speaker 1: That said, if you let your boss know about projects

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Speaker 1: you'd like to work on or tasks you'd like to handle,

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Speaker 1: she may be more likely to staff you on those.

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Speaker 1: Then when something less appealing comes up, your dance card

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Speaker 1: may be totally full. Even socially, I recommend making a

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Speaker 1: proposal instead of just waiting around and seeing what other

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Speaker 1: people plan and hoping you like it. If friends are

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Speaker 1: going out for dinner, suggest a few places you would

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Speaker 1: be excited to go something like this sounds great. I've

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Speaker 1: heard about several new restaurants I'm dying to try. What

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Speaker 1: about Amelia's or The back Yard? If that feels a

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Speaker 1: little more forward than you're comfortable with, you can always

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Speaker 1: say you're open to other suggestions. Just throwing out a

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Speaker 1: few ideas to get us started. Suggest dates that would

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Speaker 1: work well for you too. I mean, maybe you could

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Speaker 1: make it work if friends settled on a time that

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Speaker 1: is not ideal for you. But if you quickly suggest

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Speaker 1: a few dates that do work well, you're more likely

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Speaker 1: to end up getting together on one of them. By

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Speaker 1: speaking up and letting our friends and colleagues know what

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Speaker 1: we would like to do, we increase the likelihood that

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Speaker 1: will do something we want to do, and we may

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Speaker 1: decrease the chances that we will be asked to do

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Speaker 1: something we are less psyched about. In life, the early

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Speaker 1: bird often does get the worm in the meantime, This

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Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the

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Speaker 1: most of our time. Thanks for listening to before breakfast.

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Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach

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Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,

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Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.