Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is that the next few weeks are the
Speaker 1: preseason for resolutions. If you get a lot of New Year,
Speaker 1: New Ye sorts of energy, consciously using the next few
Speaker 1: weeks to practice your goals will get you in shape
Speaker 1: to start the New year strong. So I love self
Speaker 1: improvement in general, of course, which means I am fascinated
Speaker 1: by the concept of New Year's resolutions. The traditional and
Speaker 1: perhaps jaded thinking is that most of them fail, but
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the concept. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I just think most people do it wrong. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of delusional thinking out there. Sometimes people set goals
Speaker 1: that they don't actually want to do. Sometimes people haven't
Speaker 1: thought through the constituent steps of their goals and the
Speaker 1: logistics required to fit those steps into their lives. And
Speaker 1: sometimes we believe that we will become entirely different people
Speaker 1: on January first, somehow capable of doing feats that seemed
Speaker 1: hard before. As someone who has kept a number of
Speaker 1: New Year's resolutions, I do think it's quite possible to
Speaker 1: set goals and follow through. But and this is a
Speaker 1: big bud, we have to be realistic. New habits often
Speaker 1: take a lot of practice, figuring out what works, what
Speaker 1: is compelling, what fits with life, and doing these things
Speaker 1: over and over again until they seem more rote. You
Speaker 1: can ramp that up on January first, but if you'd
Speaker 1: like to start out strong in the new year, another
Speaker 1: option is to use these next few weeks as practice time.
Speaker 1: For lots of sports, the official season is preceded by
Speaker 1: a preseason. The teams practice and sometimes do some competitions
Speaker 1: that don't officially count. The purpose of all of this
Speaker 1: is to get in shape for the actual season by
Speaker 1: approximating a lot of what happens when it's game time.
Speaker 1: We can do this for resolutions as well. What could
Speaker 1: you do in the next few weeks to get in
Speaker 1: shape for your goals? How can you engage in the
Speaker 1: behavior you are hoping to adopt in a low key way.
Speaker 2: One of my goals for twenty twenty four is to
Speaker 2: listen to all the works of Bach. So these days
Speaker 2: I am creating a calendar of what I need to
Speaker 2: listen to each day, and I'm also experimenting with how
Speaker 2: the listening will fit in my life, when can I
Speaker 2: listen to thirty to forty minutes of Bach each day?
Speaker 2: I have started listening to a few pieces while driving
Speaker 2: around or while doing my daily stretching. I'm practicing what
Speaker 2: it will be like to truly move forward with this resolution. Likewise,
Speaker 2: I am resolving to do my back exercises every day
Speaker 2: in order to strengthen my core in my back and
Speaker 2: hopefully solve some back pain that I have been experiencing.
Speaker 2: So since I know that is my resolution, I have
Speaker 2: gone ahead and started it. Now, doing ten to fifteen
Speaker 2: minutes of exercises and stretches each day, I see where
Speaker 2: it can fit in. I have learned to put it
Speaker 2: on my daily to do list so I don't forget it.
Speaker 2: By the time New Year's Day rolls around, I will
Speaker 2: have been doing these stretches for approximately six weeks in
Speaker 2: a row, which means that turning it into a New
Speaker 2: Year's resolution will mostly be about continuing the habit. How
Speaker 2: might you treat the next few weeks as goals preseason?
Speaker 2: How could you practice your resolutions so that come January
Speaker 2: first you will be well positioned for success. There's absolutely
Speaker 2: nothing magical about January first, but there also is something
Speaker 2: magical about January. First, that said, it won't be magical
Speaker 2: if you don't set yourself up to succeed. Treating the
Speaker 2: next few weeks as your resolution preseason just might get
Speaker 2: you in the right mindset. In the meantime, This is Laura.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 2: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
Speaker 2: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 2: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 2: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 2: your favorite shows.