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 you can make a ritual or tradition
Speaker 1: feel even more special by giving it a name. Giving
Speaker 1: something a name makes it feel distinct. It becomes a
Speaker 1: character in your life and in your memory, which ultimately
Speaker 1: gives it a place of honor. Today's tip, like another
Speaker 1: one we'll talk about this week, comes from Happier Hour,
Speaker 1: a book by UCLA Business School professor Cassie Holmes on
Speaker 1: how to spend your time well. Holmes writes about how
Speaker 1: she and her preschool aged daughter had a weekly coffee
Speaker 1: date that they both loved, so they wanted to make
Speaker 1: it feel even more r As Holmes put it, they
Speaker 1: turned routine into ritual and made it a thing. Holmes explains,
Speaker 1: whereas habits serve to help get us through the day
Speaker 1: without extra thought, traditions imbue these passing moments with greater meaning.
Speaker 1: Traditions serve to connect us to each other and across time.
Speaker 1: They give us a sense of belonging. Holmes and her
Speaker 1: daughter did a lot of things to make their coffee
Speaker 1: dates feel more special, but one approach deserves attention because
Speaker 1: it is so easy to replicate. They gave the experience
Speaker 1: a name. It became the Thursday morning coffee date using
Speaker 1: capital letters. Now this may seem like a small thing,
Speaker 1: but when something has a formal name, it becomes more formal,
Speaker 1: it feels more important. Just as an example, there is
Speaker 1: nothing stopping you from gathering with friends and family to
Speaker 1: give thanks on the fourth Thursday of November just to
Speaker 1: do so. But by calling it Thanksgiving dinner, we create
Speaker 1: weight for the occasion, and we think about how we
Speaker 1: will do it year to year, and how we did
Speaker 1: it last year, and what we like to see and eat,
Speaker 1: and we build it into the mental landscape of that
Speaker 1: time of year. Likewise, two people can get coffee in
Speaker 1: a muffin most Thursdays with no particular ceremony, but by
Speaker 1: calling it the Thursday morning coffee date, it becomes more
Speaker 1: of an institution. No doubt, Holmes and her daughter would
Speaker 1: talk about it ahead of time or say, remember when
Speaker 1: this happened at the last Thursday morning coffee date. I
Speaker 1: will add to this that if you give something a name,
Speaker 1: then turning it into an acronym can make it feel
Speaker 1: even a little bit more special because you know the acronym.
Speaker 1: As an insider, back when I was a freshman in
Speaker 1: high school, I remember that four senior girls took out
Speaker 1: an ad in the yearbook about Jack. Those four letters
Speaker 1: were the first letters of their names. Now, who knows
Speaker 1: whatever became of Jack, as these ladies are all grown
Speaker 1: up now, but they made it very clear that their
Speaker 1: foursome was an institution. Do you have any routines that
Speaker 1: you'd like to make even more special and transform into
Speaker 1: a tradition. Perhaps you walk with your kids to school
Speaker 1: on Wednesdays, or you have Sunday morning waffles, or you
Speaker 1: generally have lunch with your direct reports on Fridays. Try
Speaker 1: giving these routines a name. The names don't have to
Speaker 1: be particularly poetic, and often they'll have merged naturally. It's
Speaker 1: just a matter of noticing them and formalizing them by
Speaker 1: capitalizing the name and then using the same name all
Speaker 1: the time. For instance, if your walk to school becomes
Speaker 1: the Wednesday walk, then instead of hollering at the kids
Speaker 1: to hurry up, we'll be late, you start hollering, we
Speaker 1: need to do the Wednesday walk. Or your Sunday waffles
Speaker 1: could become the waffle wake up. People love alliteration. Maybe
Speaker 1: you start calling your Friday lunches your celebration lunches as
Speaker 1: a way to get people to focus on everything that
Speaker 1: went right during the week. When we give our habits
Speaker 1: and routines names as part of transforming them into traditions,
Speaker 1: we create opportunities to recognize meaning in our everyday lives.
Speaker 1: Ordinary experiences can become extraordinary. They connect us to each
Speaker 1: other and to our past and to our future. If
Speaker 1: you give a routine a name and transform it into
Speaker 1: a tradition, I'd love to hear about it. You can
Speaker 1: reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: 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
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