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 that life is mostly made up of memories.
Speaker 1: We can anticipate the future, but that is largely unknown.
Speaker 1: The present is fleeting memories we truly have. This ratio
Speaker 1: means that it might be worth organizing life to pay
Speaker 1: a bit more attention to memories than we might naturally
Speaker 1: be inclined to do so. When you make your plans
Speaker 1: for the day, or for a weekend, or even for
Speaker 1: your year, my guess is that there are many criteria.
Speaker 1: You figure out what needs to get done, You ask
Speaker 1: what other people are doing. You consider what feels relaxing
Speaker 1: or what is easiest at the moment. For most of us,
Speaker 1: what makes the most or the best memories is not
Speaker 1: going to be the primary consideration, And I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that it should be, but I think it should be
Speaker 1: a bigger consideration than it often is. That is because
Speaker 1: life is made up of memories. The future is uncertain.
Speaker 1: You can barely think about the present before it is gone.
Speaker 1: Memories based on a past that actually happened are the
Speaker 1: most known part of our life. Stories when we plan
Speaker 1: our lives to optimize memories. We create a story we
Speaker 1: will be able to hold onto, one that can make
Speaker 1: our lives feel more like they happened, then that they
Speaker 1: were completely forgettable. Time feel stretched out. We don't say
Speaker 1: where did the time go when we remember where the
Speaker 1: time went. What this means in practice is nudging ourselves
Speaker 1: to do things that create more memories. These may not
Speaker 1: always be the easiest or most comfortable things to do
Speaker 1: in the moment, but if we realize that life is
Speaker 1: mostly memory, we might be more motivated. For instance, traveling
Speaker 1: can be fun, but to be honest, big chunks of
Speaker 1: it can be a bother. Plane flights are uncomfortable, so
Speaker 1: is sleeping in new beds. Adjusting to uncertainty can be challenging,
Speaker 1: as as being apart from familiar routines and foods and
Speaker 1: other things. But when you think of your memories of
Speaker 1: any given year, I would guess that any major trips
Speaker 1: you took are one of the key ways that you
Speaker 1: define the year. Oh, yes, that's the summer when we
Speaker 1: went to France. My mother in law recently shared some
Speaker 1: of her memories with the family in an album she
Speaker 1: created for all of us. Many of her recollections had
Speaker 1: to do with her travels. Certainly, you will have more
Speaker 1: memories of, say, a week spent on a safari, than
Speaker 1: a week spent in your apartment. Now, you can't spend
Speaker 1: all your weeks on safari, but if you have the
Speaker 1: opportunity to take a trip from time to time, it
Speaker 1: is probably going to be a better memory than not traveling,
Speaker 1: even if not traveling is more comfortable. I have tracked
Speaker 1: my time for over seven years now, and I have
Speaker 1: recently begun studying my time logs from six years ago,
Speaker 1: when the date cycle was the same as it was
Speaker 1: for this past year. December being a Monday in both
Speaker 1: the normal days of work and kidcare and costco runs
Speaker 1: are hard to place. But when I see something unusual
Speaker 1: on my log, something a little adventurous, I can conjure
Speaker 1: up those memories pretty quickly. Memories make past times feel
Speaker 1: more rich and full. Now. Of course, there is nothing
Speaker 1: wrong with routines and the normal rhythm of work and
Speaker 1: kid care and costco runs, but even any given week
Speaker 1: can be made a little different by doing something a
Speaker 1: little different. In the deepest days of COVID lockdowns, one
Speaker 1: family I know of made a giant game of shoots
Speaker 1: and ladders with chalk on their driveway. Life is a memory,
Speaker 1: and in normal life that became one. In any case,
Speaker 1: as you plan the next week or the next few weeks,
Speaker 1: try taking into account what memories you would like to
Speaker 1: have of this time. Memories are not just a passive
Speaker 1: result of life happening. They are something we can consciously
Speaker 1: choose to cultivate. Yes, we can have memories from things
Speaker 1: that are just spontaneously occurring, but they are also the
Speaker 1: result of our planning them in and choosing to do interesting, adventurous, novel,
Speaker 1: intense things. Maybe not every day, but not never either.
Speaker 1: When we take memory into account with our plans, we
Speaker 1: simply do these things more often. 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 it. 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 E the
Speaker 1: number four then breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcast at i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com. That before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
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