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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I 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 consciously turn your mornings into family

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Speaker 1: time before everyone goes their separate ways. You can choose

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Speaker 1: to start the day by nurturing your most important relationships.

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Speaker 1: I first learned the power of mornings many years ago

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Speaker 1: when I was researching a book called What the Most

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Speaker 1: Successful People Do Before Breakfast. Many successful people use the

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Speaker 1: early morning hours for exercise, or strategic thinking, or other

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Speaker 1: important things that life has a way of crowding out.

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Speaker 1: And if these morning warriors have families, they often trade

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Speaker 1: off with their partners or get up before the kids

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Speaker 1: in order to make time for these things. And that's because, well,

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Speaker 1: when we're trying to get large numbers of people ready

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Speaker 1: and out the door, it can be tempting to focus

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Speaker 1: solely on the various steps required to make that happen.

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Speaker 1: And trust me, I know there can be a lot

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Speaker 1: of steps. But the problem with focusing on the logistics

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Speaker 1: is that we miss the opportunity to make this time

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Speaker 1: into something more. I was reminded of this when I

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Speaker 1: got a note from Ryan Holiday about how he spends

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Speaker 1: his mornings. Holiday is the author of the new book

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Speaker 1: Stillness Is the Key, and of several other books, including

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Speaker 1: The Obstacle Is the Way. Holiday tells me that starting

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Speaker 1: earlier this year, I decided I would no longer use

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Speaker 1: my phone for the first one hour that I am awake. Instead,

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Speaker 1: I grabbed my three year old son and take him

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Speaker 1: for a long walk. We go outside, We get active,

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Speaker 1: and we watched the sun come up as we travel

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Speaker 1: the back roads that surround our farm. Almost invariably, I

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Speaker 1: come home with ideas that I can use in my writing.

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Speaker 1: We come home with memories to tell the rest of

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Speaker 1: the family about instead of just take king a photo.

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Speaker 1: To me, it's about getting some stillness in the morning

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Speaker 1: before the workday starts. And it's ironic that the stillness

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Speaker 1: comes for us from movement. But what works works the

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Speaker 1: key is just not starting the day reacting, letting Twitter

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Speaker 1: or your email inbox dictate the first thing you do

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Speaker 1: during the day. Instead, you should decide, and for me, concentration,

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Speaker 1: family time and fun are what I choose. I think

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Speaker 1: this is a great idea. Holiday is spending time with

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Speaker 1: his kid, but getting exercise and thinking time too. How

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Speaker 1: great to score a trifecta like that, Mornings in general

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Speaker 1: can be a great time for family time. Now I

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Speaker 1: don't have a farm to wander about, but I started

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Speaker 1: to make a point of sitting at the kitchen table

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Speaker 1: in sequence with all my children as they eat breakfast.

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Speaker 1: The seventh grader is first, and in typical teenager fashion,

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Speaker 1: he's not always the most talkative person and at breakfast,

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Speaker 1: but that's all right. I can communicate that I'm interested

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Speaker 1: in his life, and I can make sure he's getting

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Speaker 1: a serving of fruit, and these both count for something.

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Speaker 1: My four year old tends to wander down next, and

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Speaker 1: we have very different conversations. And by the time I've

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Speaker 1: fed my elementary school aged kids, I might have been

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Speaker 1: sitting at that breakfast table for fifty minutes. Fifty minutes

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Speaker 1: is a fair chunk of time, but that's okay. I

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Speaker 1: found that lingering over breakfast in my coffee puts me

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Speaker 1: in a mood of time abundance. Sure, I have a

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Speaker 1: lot to do, but there's no rush. On the mornings

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Speaker 1: my husband is home, he'll sit there too, And these

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Speaker 1: are often the only chances we get to have two

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Speaker 1: parents focused on one kid, and it's not a disciplinary situation.

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Speaker 1: When we have a gap between kid breakfast, the two

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Speaker 1: of us can sit there and talk, which is nice

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Speaker 1: as well. I recognize that sometimes mornings begin early enough

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Speaker 1: and kids are young enough that it's hard to do

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Speaker 1: anything except grab a granola bar and get everyone dressed

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Speaker 1: and strapped into their car seats. But if there is

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Speaker 1: some flexibility, think through your morning routine and think if

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Speaker 1: there might be space to spend a little time doing

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Speaker 1: something other than getting ready. Could you and your spouse

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Speaker 1: share a cup of coffee together on the porch. If

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Speaker 1: you have young kids who wake up really early, could

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Speaker 1: you play or read together for half an hour before

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Speaker 1: you need to hop in the shower. Maybe you get

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Speaker 1: up fifteen minutes before your teens need to get up,

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Speaker 1: and you whip up some scrambled eggs to sit and

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Speaker 1: eat with them, Even if they're not actually talking to you.

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Speaker 1: Eating together is a form of communication in any case.

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Speaker 1: I know there's a story out there that mornings are

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Speaker 1: inevitably rushed and harried. The problem is that when we

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Speaker 1: tell ourselves this story, we start to believe it, and

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Speaker 1: we can choose to structure our lives differently. If the

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Speaker 1: upside is closer relationships with the people we love most.

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Speaker 1: Why not give it a try. In the meantime, this

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four,

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Speaker 1: then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me

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Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media

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Speaker 1: dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all

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Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying

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Speaker 1: in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i

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Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

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Speaker 1: your favorite shows. The