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 that there is nothing wrong with pressing the
Speaker 1: easy button when you have the opportunity. Solutions aren't always
Speaker 1: better just because they are hard. Figure out lots of
Speaker 1: easy buttons in life, and you just might have more
Speaker 1: mental space for what really matters. Before Breakfast listeners of
Speaker 1: a certain age may remember the ad campaign from the
Speaker 1: office supply store Staples. A small red button labeled easy
Speaker 1: miraculously solved all kinds of challenges, from pens that run
Speaker 1: out of ink, to hardmouth problems to changing twin babies diapers.
Speaker 1: At the same time. The idea, of course, was that
Speaker 1: Staples made getting office supplies is easy pressing a button.
Speaker 1: The fantasy of having an easy button was so powerful
Speaker 1: that Staples even started selling an easy button desk toy. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that the desk toy will not solve
Speaker 1: any problems for you, but you can find all kinds
Speaker 1: of metaphorical easy buttons in life. Weeknight dinners can be
Speaker 1: pasta one night Taco's, another make your own pizza breakfast
Speaker 1: for dinner, and a store bought rotisserie chicken with a
Speaker 1: bagged salad. Brilliant. I just mail planned for an entire
Speaker 1: week for you. If you want variety, you can cook
Speaker 1: elaborate meals on the weekends and then maybe have the
Speaker 1: leftovers as a dinner in the middle of the week.
Speaker 1: Or do you take out some night you have pressed
Speaker 1: the easy button and still had a satisfying string of dinners.
Speaker 1: You can choose a kind of wine you like and
Speaker 1: always bring that as a hostess gift. Seriously, just order
Speaker 1: a dozen bottles, and if you get invited to more
Speaker 1: parties than that in a year, I'm thrilled for you,
Speaker 1: but most of us probably won't be, so it will
Speaker 1: all work out. Cash can be a very easy gift
Speaker 1: for a wide variety of occasions, and for a solid
Speaker 1: percentage of those occasions, the person will prefer cash to
Speaker 1: whatever you might have picked out, So go ahead and
Speaker 1: press the easy button. If it's going to be appropriate
Speaker 1: for my female listeners. A simple black dress can be
Speaker 1: your easy button outfit for any event. Unless you are
Speaker 1: the sort of person who is frequently photographed for the tabloids,
Speaker 1: no one is going to notice that you are wearing
Speaker 1: the same thing on more than one occasion. If you
Speaker 1: are supposed to bring a homemade dessert somewhere, bring slice
Speaker 1: and baked cookies. They worked us fine. Have a go
Speaker 1: to karaoke song Paint Walls and Benjamin Moore White Dove
Speaker 1: have a restaurant you always suggest to visiting out of
Speaker 1: town guests. I believe that part of adulting is knowing
Speaker 1: about a certain number of easy buttons and availing yourself
Speaker 1: of them whenever the situation permits. When we are young,
Speaker 1: we often think that everyone is watching and judging us,
Speaker 1: and so we need to impress people with our command
Speaker 1: of a wide variety of things, places, outfits, meals. Then
Speaker 1: you get older and realize no one is noticing. Indeed,
Speaker 1: people tend to be happier with surefire hits than with
Speaker 1: experimentation that can go awry. At six o'clock on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: your crew is going to be happier with pasta than
Speaker 1: with some elaborate new seafood dish that your gourmet magazine
Speaker 1: said was amazing. Maybe it is, but you can find
Speaker 1: that out when you make it on Saturday. On Tuesday,
Speaker 1: press the easy button. I don't like the phrase taking
Speaker 1: the easy way out because it's pejorative. In many cases,
Speaker 1: the easy way is not only fine, it might be
Speaker 1: preferable to something harder. Save your time and energy for
Speaker 1: situations where it matters or might truly improve things. With
Speaker 1: most other things, pressing the easy button is perfectly fine.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.