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 put a price tag on it.
Speaker 1: When there is something you want, figure out how much
Speaker 1: time and money it would take to make it happen.
Speaker 1: You may realize that things are not as costly as
Speaker 1: you assumed, or perhaps they are, but at least you
Speaker 1: know what you're working with so you can make rational choices.
Speaker 1: So often in life we talk about things we would
Speaker 1: like to change, but then we dismissed these ideas out
Speaker 1: of hand, or perhaps view the problems as so overwhelming
Speaker 1: that there is no rational place to start. I wish
Speaker 1: I could fill in the blank, travel more, go back
Speaker 1: to school, renovate my kitchen, stop looking from by, not
Speaker 1: spend my weekends scrubbing the bathrooms. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Very few things in life are truly impossible to change.
Speaker 1: Many changes could happen with some amount of cash or time.
Speaker 1: Taking a moment to consider how much such changes would
Speaker 1: cost in time and money may prompt you to realize
Speaker 1: it is something you can do more easily than you thought,
Speaker 1: or at least it will put the problem in perspective.
Speaker 1: For instance, maybe after the pandemic, your old work wardrobe
Speaker 1: it's no longer fitting like it did. Rather than be
Speaker 1: moaning this or squeezing into clothes that make you feel
Speaker 1: bad about yourself, you could put a price tag on
Speaker 1: this issue. With three hours on the internet and six
Speaker 1: what do you think you could do? My guess is
Speaker 1: that you could buy yourself a pretty good professional wardrobe
Speaker 1: in a larger size with just a quick trip to
Speaker 1: the post office to return whatever doesn't work. Or maybe
Speaker 1: you don't like your disorganized pantry. What if you gave
Speaker 1: yourself two hours on the weekend and fifty dollars for
Speaker 1: organizing supplies. My guess is that you'd be pretty close
Speaker 1: to getting the pantry under control for less than the
Speaker 1: cost of a family dinner out. Even with something that
Speaker 1: is more complicated, you should still look at the price tag.
Speaker 1: If you are bothered by your crooked teeth, for instance,
Speaker 1: go visit an orthodontist or check out one of those
Speaker 1: online services. They will give you a dollar figure and
Speaker 1: a length of time. Then you can decide how you
Speaker 1: feel about that. Now it might be possible that you'll
Speaker 1: decide it isn't worth the cost I have a slight
Speaker 1: gap between my front teeth that I thought about fixing
Speaker 1: for a few seconds in my late twenties. I got
Speaker 1: an expert opinion on what fixing it would take, namely
Speaker 1: a few thousand dollars and six to twelve months. Then
Speaker 1: I had a kid and decided I didn't have the
Speaker 1: brain space to be worried about an imperceptible gap. In general,
Speaker 1: the upside of knowing is that then you can make
Speaker 1: an informed choice, which leads to less rumination. No more
Speaker 1: I'm so embarrassed by the dent in my car. I
Speaker 1: should have it fixed. Instead, you think to yourself, it
Speaker 1: stinks that I have a dent in my car, but
Speaker 1: I would rather use the thousand dollars that would cost
Speaker 1: to fix it for something else, since I'm going to
Speaker 1: get a new car in a year or two. Anyway,
Speaker 1: your mind can move on to other things. This sounds
Speaker 1: simple enough, but I've found that sometimes people like to
Speaker 1: nurse dissatisfactions rather than truly figuring out what it would
Speaker 1: take to solve a problem. Perhaps you hate doing laundry,
Speaker 1: don't we all? It can be fun to complain. I
Speaker 1: recently heard such complaints about mounds and mounds of laundry
Speaker 1: taking over one's life from a fairly well off woman
Speaker 1: who could absolutely have afforded to pay someone else to
Speaker 1: do her laundry. I'm not sure what was going on there.
Speaker 1: Did she not know that that was an option or
Speaker 1: was it more comforting to keep the identity of doing
Speaker 1: everything for everyone else? I don't know. But we can
Speaker 1: put a price tag on a great many things. That
Speaker 1: includes outsourcing laundry or cooking, hiring some weekend childcare, even
Speaker 1: big things like taking a six month sabbatical and traveling
Speaker 1: the world, going part time and using the extra hours
Speaker 1: to write a novel. In the end, we might not
Speaker 1: find it is worth it to pay that price for
Speaker 1: various reasons. But when we know the price, we can
Speaker 1: make a decision and either make the change or move on.
Speaker 1: Knowing we can then focus on more satisfying things in
Speaker 1: the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,
Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram at before Breakfast Pod. That's b the
Speaker 1: number four. Then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
Speaker 1: I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.