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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of my Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is to let limits help you make choices.

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Speaker 1: We don't generally seek out limits, but when we encounter them,

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Speaker 1: we can acknowledge that sometimes they have their benefits. They

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Speaker 1: help us prioritize, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

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Speaker 1: Like many folks, I realized not long ago that I

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Speaker 1: had ended up with a fair amount of stuff in

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Speaker 1: my closet that I didn't wear. My husband had the

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Speaker 1: same problem. Neither of us felt compelled to do much

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Speaker 1: about it. Then we had a fifth baby. We are

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Speaker 1: eventually going to move to a house where the baby

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Speaker 1: will have a room, but the renovations are taking a while,

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Speaker 1: and in the meantime we decided to put his crib

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Speaker 1: in the master bedroom closet. This required cleaning out an

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Speaker 1: entire corner, two double racks plus a single one, and

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Speaker 1: the pile of stuff we had on the floor, So

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Speaker 1: we each took some time and got rid of what

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Speaker 1: didn't fit in our remaining space. Much of what we

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Speaker 1: got rid of could have been disposed of years ago,

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Speaker 1: but we didn't have an obvious need to do so.

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Speaker 1: Once we had a need, the limits on our space

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Speaker 1: made decisions a little easier. Maybe you can use the

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Speaker 1: same principle. If you have more books than bookshelf space,

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Speaker 1: and trust me, I sympathize with us, get rid of

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Speaker 1: some books, take the bookshelf space you have as a given,

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Speaker 1: decide which books you want to keep on those shelves,

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Speaker 1: and then let the rest go. It is time consuming

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Speaker 1: and exhausting to ask yourself whether or not you want

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Speaker 1: to keep each and every book, and to contemplate the

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Speaker 1: likelihood that you want to reread it or lend it

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Speaker 1: to a friend, and then start shopping through the universe

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Speaker 1: of extra bookcases that might or might not go in

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Speaker 1: your house. It's much easier to accept the limit of

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Speaker 1: the size of your bookcase and right size your library

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Speaker 1: for the available shelf space. If all your books have

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Speaker 1: a home, grete you have the right number. If not,

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Speaker 1: keep grabbing books you can give away until your shelves

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Speaker 1: provide enough space. Limits can help us decide what to

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Speaker 1: do with our time too. If you have ever worked

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Speaker 1: in a department that was short staffed, you probably noticed

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Speaker 1: that amazingly, the most critical work still got done. Now

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Speaker 1: maybe a lot of other great stuff didn't get done,

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Speaker 1: and I'm not suggesting cutting just to do so, but

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Speaker 1: when there are limited hands available, this inspires a certain

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Speaker 1: level of focus. Same thing with our personal lives. During

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Speaker 1: a busy weekend, when there is less time available for

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Speaker 1: life maintenance and household tasks. You will certainly make a

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Speaker 1: quick stop at the store for the obvious stuff, but

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Speaker 1: you won't visit three big box stores hunting for the

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Speaker 1: perfect shovel. You will probably do laundry, but you aren't

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Speaker 1: going to dust the base boards. You can even intentionally

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Speaker 1: plan less time for life maintenance tasks so that they

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Speaker 1: don't take over your weekend. Instead of thinking of Saturday

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Speaker 1: as errand day, devote an hour or two to errands

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Speaker 1: and let that limit help you decide which errands you

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Speaker 1: actually need to do. Of course, lots of people are

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Speaker 1: experiencing time constraints in their professional lives right now that

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Speaker 1: they didn't really choose. Hopefully, schools and child care will

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Speaker 1: be back to their usual operations soon, but in the meantime,

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Speaker 1: if you have fewer hours available for your job responsibilities,

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Speaker 1: I am guessing that, as a listener of this podcast,

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Speaker 1: you are likely identifying the most import work and doing

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Speaker 1: what fits with the available time. Wise move and if

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Speaker 1: you aren't doing that, well, take a little time to

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Speaker 1: consciously determine what's most important and what can be put

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Speaker 1: on the back burner. Life won't always be like this,

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Speaker 1: but maybe you can find a few tasks that never

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Speaker 1: need to be prioritized again, and that is worth knowing.

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Speaker 1: So today, if you are contending with limits on your

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Speaker 1: time or space, start by being realistic and acknowledging the limit.

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Speaker 1: All right, there are four hours I can do focused

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Speaker 1: work today. What are my top priorities? Or we have

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Speaker 1: a small car and a lot of stuff we wanted

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Speaker 1: to take on this trip. What do we actually need

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Speaker 1: the most? Then, without overthinking it, decide what's most essential

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Speaker 1: to fit within your limits and what you can set aside.

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Speaker 1: Handled such limits can make all decisions easier in the meantime.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to

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Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your

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Speaker 1: questions or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,

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Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram at before Breakfast pod. That's B the

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Speaker 1: number four. Then Breakfast p O D You can also

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Speaker 1: shoot me an email at before Breakfast podcast at i

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Speaker 1: heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out

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Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward

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Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of

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Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. Yeah,