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 remember a childhood summer. If you
Speaker 1: spend some time really thinking about what you enjoyed as
Speaker 1: a kid, you can get insights into what might make
Speaker 1: life more enjoyable. Now. If you read a lot of
Speaker 1: American literature, in particular, there's a fantasy of the ideal
Speaker 1: childhood summer. It's spent wild and care free outside with friends,
Speaker 1: filled to the brim with happiness. Now, this is obviously
Speaker 1: not going to be true for every minute for anybody.
Speaker 1: It also presupposes a certain family structure that has someone
Speaker 1: watching out the kitchen window as the kids frolic in
Speaker 1: the yard. That said, for many of us growing up
Speaker 1: in a society that featured long summer breaks from school,
Speaker 1: summer did feature at least a few more hours focused
Speaker 1: on things that were intrinsically interesting for us. Maybe you
Speaker 1: went to a summer camp, but you could choose which
Speaker 1: themed week was of interest, or you choose between different
Speaker 1: kinds of camp. Out of school, there may have been
Speaker 1: a few more hours spent entertaining yourself rather than having
Speaker 1: time dictated, or at least you were engaging in different
Speaker 1: projects than the school year brought. And so these summers
Speaker 1: from the past offer clues to what might be of
Speaker 1: interest in adulthood too. What we chose when we could
Speaker 1: choose might be what we would choose now. Sometimes when
Speaker 1: people think of this question, they make big life changes.
Speaker 1: I recently read Donald Hall's memoir String Too Short to
Speaker 1: Be Saved about his summers on his grandparents New Hampshire farm.
Speaker 1: He wrote the book as an elegy to a disappearing
Speaker 1: way of life. Then, as his grandmother was dying, he
Speaker 1: realized that he could in fact buy the farm from
Speaker 1: her children and adopt that way of life himself. He
Speaker 1: wound up resigning his professorship and doing just that. Now
Speaker 1: most of us are not going to buy the farm,
Speaker 1: but there might be clues to interests, both professional and personal.
Speaker 1: So think back to a childhood summer. What did you
Speaker 1: look forward to, What did you do whenever you could,
Speaker 1: What made time seemed to stand still and fly by.
Speaker 1: Maybe it was a summer theater production that you were
Speaker 1: part of each year. Maybe it was a wilderness camp
Speaker 1: where you got to sleep out under the stars. Maybe
Speaker 1: you have happy memories of a summer job, or spending
Speaker 1: all afternoon making crafts with your sister while your parents
Speaker 1: were at work. Think about these memories, spend some time
Speaker 1: really exploring them. Why do you think you felt so happy.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's not the most obvious aspect. You enjoyed summer
Speaker 1: theater not because of the singing and dancing, though those
Speaker 1: were fun, but because you loved pulling a whole project
Speaker 1: together start to finish in three weeks. Maybe you went
Speaker 1: to an academic camp where the obvious pull was time
Speaker 1: away from home, but as you think about it, you
Speaker 1: recall that for the first time, you felt like you
Speaker 1: could really talk with people about your ideas and they
Speaker 1: wouldn't think you were weird for being into math. Maybe
Speaker 1: you had a job you really loved, not because you
Speaker 1: loved selling hot dogs, but because you loved talking with
Speaker 1: different people all day long. Once you've got a grip
Speaker 1: on the why behind your happy summer memories, you can
Speaker 1: figure out how to add a little more of this
Speaker 1: into your current life. Maybe you run a business where
Speaker 1: you are mostly in charge of strategy, but you might
Speaker 1: enjoy spending a day every week or two working directly
Speaker 1: with customers, just like you used to do at that
Speaker 1: hot dog stand. There are probably wise reasons to do this,
Speaker 1: and it would scratch that itch to talk with new people.
Speaker 1: If you loved summer theater, maybe you need to rethink
Speaker 1: your workflow to do more short and intense project X.
Speaker 1: I have long been fascinated by the teams that start
Speaker 1: new magazines and then hand them off to others to run,
Speaker 1: or even the teams that start new schools. Or maybe
Speaker 1: if you loved that academic camp, you just need to
Speaker 1: join some more cerebral discussion groups. No, life probably won't
Speaker 1: be like that magical summer you remember when you were
Speaker 1: fourteen and figuring the world out. But on the other hand,
Speaker 1: there is no reason to consign all summer happiness to
Speaker 1: the past. Because summers may have featured more discretionary time,
Speaker 1: or at least different time. They can give us clues
Speaker 1: to what might make life more interesting now during the
Speaker 1: summer and all year long. So spend some time today
Speaker 1: remembering a childhood summer. The glow might just last into
Speaker 1: the present two In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, 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 podcast.
Speaker 1: At i heeart 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 my
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H