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 to consider whether there are any priorities
Speaker 1: in your life that you've let slide in recent months.
Speaker 1: If so, now is a great time to consider if
Speaker 1: you'd like to pick them back up again, even if
Speaker 1: it needs to be in a different form. Was quite
Speaker 1: the year, and obviously the human toll of the coronavirus
Speaker 1: has been heart wrenchingly massive. It's also been a disruption
Speaker 1: to daily life. There is remote work in virtual school.
Speaker 1: Many of us can't go to the gym or even
Speaker 1: grocery stores as freely as before. New schedules mean we
Speaker 1: have a different rhythm to our days. Since many habits,
Speaker 1: both positive and negative, root themselves in daily circumstances, all
Speaker 1: this change means that habits or routines you consciously built
Speaker 1: may have fallen by the wayside. Maybe your gem closed
Speaker 1: and you started exercising outside until the heat of the
Speaker 1: summer descended and you just couldn't make it work. Once
Speaker 1: you stopped for a while, you stopped thinking about exercise,
Speaker 1: and here it is the dead of winter with the
Speaker 1: habit still gone. I used to go to church every week,
Speaker 1: and I tried to make my family go as often
Speaker 1: as possible. Then services went virtual. I made my kids
Speaker 1: watch Zoom for a while, and then I realized it
Speaker 1: was all I could do to keep them doing virtual
Speaker 1: school during the week. They needed time off Zoom over
Speaker 1: the weekends. And so like that, we're out of the habit.
Speaker 1: Back in March, we thought this interruption to our lives
Speaker 1: would last just a few weeks. I recently went back
Speaker 1: in my church building and saw the signs and the
Speaker 1: are aloft telling us the hymns for that Sunday in
Speaker 1: early March. It's like an artifact unearthed from an ancient civilization,
Speaker 1: because here we are ten months in and our daily
Speaker 1: lives aren't going to look anything like they looked in
Speaker 1: early March anytime soon. But given that this is true,
Speaker 1: now in the new year is as good a time
Speaker 1: as any to think through the various logistical things in
Speaker 1: your life that your old schedule supported but that your
Speaker 1: new one doesn't. Are you doing everything you need to
Speaker 1: make sure that nothing you want to maintain has fallen
Speaker 1: to the wayside, If there's anything you've forgotten that you
Speaker 1: want to add back in make a plan. The same
Speaker 1: approaches you would use for forming a new habit can
Speaker 1: be helpful for restarting an old one, like starting small
Speaker 1: and connecting the habit to something that's already happening regularly.
Speaker 1: Of course, on the other hand, there may be things
Speaker 1: that you've forgotten about that it turns out aren't really priorities.
Speaker 1: That habit of driving through a coffee shop every morning
Speaker 1: on your way to work, well, if you don't miss it,
Speaker 1: why at it back? Or that weekly meeting with your
Speaker 1: team that seemed indispensable until you didn't have it and
Speaker 1: didn't replace it with anything else when you went remote.
Speaker 1: Sounds like maybe it was dispensable after all. You may
Speaker 1: have had routines or habits that needed interruption. If you
Speaker 1: don't miss them, maybe they're past their time of usefulness.
Speaker 1: Let them go. But if not, let's figure out how
Speaker 1: to build them back. A ten minute walk in the
Speaker 1: snow is better than nothing. Maybe your own devotionals can
Speaker 1: take the place of services, with the understanding that you
Speaker 1: know you care about this, and as soon as they
Speaker 1: are available in person, you will be there. With the
Speaker 1: zeal of a new convert by can get what we've forgotten.
Speaker 1: We can build the lives we want now, or at
Speaker 1: least do our best, and we can know when things
Speaker 1: change what we are willing to go all in on
Speaker 1: with resuming. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod
Speaker 1: that's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at iHeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I
Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Yea