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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 that low expectations are easy to meet,

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Speaker 1: So when you are having a hard time meeting your

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Speaker 1: daily goals, consider adjusting them downward. You may find that

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Speaker 1: you accomplish more then when your goals are more ambitious.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure many people listening to this podcast have heard

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Speaker 1: the advice to set smart goals, ones that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic,

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Speaker 1: and time bound. This is wise advice sometimes though our

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Speaker 1: calibration of what is attainable and realistic might be a

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Speaker 1: little off. You may find find yourself setting goals each

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Speaker 1: day that seemed doable, but that you haven't achieved by

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Speaker 1: the end of the day. This can be discouraging. You

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Speaker 1: may even feel frustrated or bad about yourself. After a

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Speaker 1: few days or weeks of this, you may throw up

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Speaker 1: your hands and stop caring about your goals. If you

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Speaker 1: consistently fall short of your daily goals. Eventually your daily

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Speaker 1: goals become more like daily wishes. You wind up viewing

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Speaker 1: them as things that it would be nice to accomplish,

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Speaker 1: but that you are not necessarily expecting to get to

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Speaker 1: you don't hold yourself to them, your to do list

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Speaker 1: becomes meaningless. It is not what you are going to

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Speaker 1: do today, so it is just a list of stuff.

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Speaker 1: This is not a productive approach. Instead, when you find

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Speaker 1: yourself discouraged because you keep not meeting your goals, consider

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Speaker 1: lowering them. Ask yourself, what is the lowest reasonable expectation

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Speaker 1: you can set for yourself? Then aim for that. I

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Speaker 1: am talking really small. Instead of putting a hundred things

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Speaker 1: on your to do list for tomorrow, maybe put two things.

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Speaker 1: In the morning, you will draft an employee satisfaction survey.

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Speaker 1: In the afternoon, you will lead the department meeting and

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Speaker 1: complete the follow up. You can aim low in your

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Speaker 1: personal life too. On Saturday, you will not redecorate your

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Speaker 1: entire house. You will plant flowers in the planters on

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Speaker 1: the front porch. Tonight, you will not hold yourself to

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Speaker 1: anything other than calling your father to wish him a

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Speaker 1: happy birthday. You get the idea. When the only thing

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Speaker 1: on your to do list for tonight is to wish

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Speaker 1: your dad a happy birthday, how could you not get

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Speaker 1: that done when your only goal for tomorrow morning is

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Speaker 1: to draft that employee Satisfaction Survey, and that is it.

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Speaker 1: You are highly likely to complete it. You can meet

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Speaker 1: the low expectations. But here's the thing. Paradoxically, less can

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Speaker 1: be more. If you intended to draft the employee satisfaction

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Speaker 1: survey and develop a job description for a new position,

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Speaker 1: and create the agenda for the conference next week, and

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Speaker 1: write that memo about the annual review process and answer

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Speaker 1: the twenty emails you flagged from Tuesday, you might not

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Speaker 1: get to any of it. It feels overwhelming. But if

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Speaker 1: you are expecting to just do the survey, you will

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Speaker 1: do what you set out to do. And then, who knows,

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Speaker 1: maybe that sense of satisfaction will nudge you onward to

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Speaker 1: do other things or it won't, but you will still

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Speaker 1: be better off than if you did none of it.

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Speaker 1: You'll start to become more confident in your ability to

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Speaker 1: do the things you set out to do. You can

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Speaker 1: start treating your to do list as a contract with yourself.

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Speaker 1: When you reach that state, it can be a real breakthrough.

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Speaker 1: You can put some things on the list for three

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Speaker 1: days from now and no, they will absolutely still get done.

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Speaker 1: You don't feel bad that you aren't doing them today

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Speaker 1: because you know that whatever is on the list will happen.

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Speaker 1: But the only way to truly hold yourself accountable to

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Speaker 1: your to do list is to make it short and

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Speaker 1: so you want to lower your expectations. Achieving little things

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Speaker 1: in the short run means you can achieve big things

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Speaker 1: in the long run because you keep moving forward in

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Speaker 1: the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's

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

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

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Speaker 1: your 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 E

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Speaker 1: the number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can

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Speaker 1: also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: of 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.