Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is about a simple way to make ordinary
Speaker 1: moments feel more meaningful. Calculate how many more times you
Speaker 1: will do them. The answer maybe less than you think,
Speaker 1: which can make every remaining action feel more important. Today's
Speaker 1: tip comes from Cassie holmes new book Happier Hour, How
Speaker 1: to beat distraction, expand your time, and focus on what
Speaker 1: matters most. In this book, Cassie explains how the ways
Speaker 1: people spend their time can affect their happiness. One fascinating
Speaker 1: finding as people get older, they tend to find a
Speaker 1: higher level of happiness in ordinary events. When you're young,
Speaker 1: it is the fantastic experiences that move the needle. A
Speaker 1: delectable dinner, a stunning concert, an amazing vacation. Older folks,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, can get just as excited by
Speaker 1: a walk with a friend. In Happier Hour, Cassie writes
Speaker 1: that realizing their time is precious, people become more prone
Speaker 1: to savor even the simplest of moments. This, of course
Speaker 1: suggests a little mind trick for finding small movements more meaningful.
Speaker 1: Consider how many times you have done an activity and
Speaker 1: then calculate how many times you can expect it to
Speaker 1: happen again. You can make yourself feel the equivalent of
Speaker 1: older by reminding yourself that these still to happen number
Speaker 1: might be quite small. So, for instance, Cassie did this
Speaker 1: after once telling her young son to hurry up when
Speaker 1: he had literally stopped to smell the roses as they
Speaker 1: were walking to preschool. She walked her kid to school
Speaker 1: almost every day, and so she adapted to it as
Speaker 1: an everyday activity, but her son wouldn't be in preschool forever.
Speaker 1: On the day she was trying to get him to
Speaker 1: hurry up, she had already completed eight of her walks
Speaker 1: with him to preschool. Knowing that allowed her to realize
Speaker 1: how precious those last really were. Some people automatically start
Speaker 1: to do this as they realize their kids are getting older.
Speaker 1: My oldest child is already fifteen. Most likely we only
Speaker 1: have three years or so before he decides to move
Speaker 1: on to the next chapter of his life. As we
Speaker 1: figure out how to spend Christmas break, we should really
Speaker 1: only assume we get three more Christmas breaks where he
Speaker 1: is automatically here. It does make the experience of planning
Speaker 1: Christmas more poignant now. To be sure, I have a
Speaker 1: two year old as well, so I am not going
Speaker 1: to be an empty nester for a long time. But
Speaker 1: as I am pretty sure this is my last baby,
Speaker 1: I have definitely thought how close I am to the
Speaker 1: end of so many things. With him. I have changed
Speaker 1: a lot of diapers in my life. I have probably
Speaker 1: changed the diapers I am going to change at least
Speaker 1: until the grandkids stage. That doesn't make diaper changing more pleasant,
Speaker 1: but it does make each one feel less like a
Speaker 1: tedious and eternal sentence. And then there is rocking a
Speaker 1: baby to bed. Sometimes I really would like to have
Speaker 1: this be an easier process. But in another year or
Speaker 1: two he will be a big boy in a big
Speaker 1: boy bed, and my multidecade journey of putting babies to
Speaker 1: bed we'll be over. Right now, I am truly almost done.
Speaker 1: In any case, if there is something in your life
Speaker 1: you do frequently and you'd like to imbue it with
Speaker 1: a bit more meaning, you might try this trick from
Speaker 1: happier hour, figure out how many times you've done it,
Speaker 1: and figure out how many more times you have left.
Speaker 1: There is no need to depress yourself as I contemplate
Speaker 1: that the actuarial tables say, I probably have a mirror
Speaker 1: two thousand weeks to go in my life. But it
Speaker 1: does make individual moments matter more and that can make
Speaker 1: time in general feel more expansive. In the meantime, this
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four,
Speaker 1: then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media
Speaker 1: dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all
Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying
Speaker 1: in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio.
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