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 we tend to stick with things that
Speaker 1: are easy, pleasant, and fit in our lives. If you
Speaker 1: are trying to stick with any project long term, it
Speaker 1: helps to structure it to satisfy those conditions. I know
Speaker 1: that a great many people set goals and resolutions for
Speaker 1: the new year. By the end of the year, many
Speaker 1: of these have been forgotten or at least abandoned. It
Speaker 1: may be true that some people are more oriented towards
Speaker 1: sticking with random, self imposed goals than others, but I
Speaker 1: also think that in many cases, people abandon their projects
Speaker 1: because they aren't structured in a way that makes success likely.
Speaker 1: I set a few long term goals this year, and
Speaker 1: I am happy to report that they have mostly happened.
Speaker 1: For instance, I wanted to listen to all the works
Speaker 1: of Beethoven. I wanted to read Anna Karnina, and I
Speaker 1: wanted to write fifty two sonnets. Those are fourteen line
Speaker 1: poems that follow a certain rhyming scheme. Coming into December,
Speaker 1: I have indeed listened to almost all of Beethoven. I
Speaker 1: finished Tolstoy's epic a while ago, and I have written
Speaker 1: forty eight sonnets and will hit fifty two by January.
Speaker 1: I will not credit any deep well of discipline for
Speaker 1: any of this. Anyone thinking that should see how much
Speaker 1: time I waste scrolling on social media. But I did
Speaker 1: structure all of these projects very carefully. For instance, when
Speaker 1: I decided I wanted to listen to Beethoven, I became
Speaker 1: aware of a site called the Complete Beethoven, which breaks
Speaker 1: his work into three hundred and sixty six daily assignments
Speaker 1: with links to the best recordings of each piece. I
Speaker 1: understand this isn't truly complete, as we skipped some of
Speaker 1: his less exciting folk songs, but it is pretty comprehensive.
Speaker 1: Each day I simply listened to the day's performances as
Speaker 1: I was driving people around in the car. It was easy.
Speaker 1: All I had to do was click on the links
Speaker 1: and pleasant. Beethoven is kind of known for being a
Speaker 1: good composer. This elevated time in the car considerably. It
Speaker 1: also fit into my life, since I spend a lot
Speaker 1: of time in the car. Same with reading Tolstoy. Anna
Speaker 1: Karna is about nine hundred pages long, but it consists
Speaker 1: of around two hundred and forty very short chapters. I
Speaker 1: just read one chapter a day through to September, and voila,
Speaker 1: I had finished the book. It took just a few
Speaker 1: minutes a day, and since Anna Karinyna is one of
Speaker 1: the best novels ever written, this was pleasant enough. No
Speaker 1: huge will of discipline required. I kept the book on
Speaker 1: my nightstand and just read through it, reading a little
Speaker 1: ahead or making up a little time afterward when I traveled.
Speaker 1: As for the sonnets, writing fourteen lines a week requires
Speaker 1: writing two lines a day. Each of these lines is
Speaker 1: just ten syllables, so the requirement was simply twenty syllables
Speaker 1: a day, not that hard at all. I could usually
Speaker 1: do that in a minute or two, and now I
Speaker 1: have a lot of poems. If you are trying to
Speaker 1: stick with anything long term, it might help to follow
Speaker 1: this same rubric. How can you make each step toward
Speaker 1: your goal as easy as possible? We won't do anything
Speaker 1: for two hours a day. Twenty minutes might be more
Speaker 1: possible or even less. As for pleasure, to be successful,
Speaker 1: you generally need to choose goals you actually want to
Speaker 1: do and find it least semi enjoyable for their own sake.
Speaker 1: If you hate running, it's going to be hard to
Speaker 1: stick with running. Maybe you need to find another form
Speaker 1: of exercise that you hate less. There are all sorts
Speaker 1: of longer projects I haven't done. I don't really want
Speaker 1: to read all of Dickens, for instance. It also helps
Speaker 1: to think through your life and think about when you
Speaker 1: can do whatever these small steps are. If you want
Speaker 1: to journal, maybe you should do that for five minutes
Speaker 1: in the morning, or maybe for you it would work
Speaker 1: better as a short break during the workday. Maybe you
Speaker 1: plan to do five minutes of push ups and sit
Speaker 1: ups each day while watching TV. Maybe you have something
Speaker 1: you could listen to in the car each day, and
Speaker 1: you know you spend a lot of time in the car.
Speaker 1: Don't assume a perfect life. Don't assume your life will
Speaker 1: change dramatically. Look at life as it is or as
Speaker 1: it reasonably could be, and see what fits with that.
Speaker 1: If you do those things, though, then you won't need
Speaker 1: huge supplies of discipline to stick with things. Even big
Speaker 1: goals can be achieved through very small steps. This becomes
Speaker 1: less a matter of discipline and more just a matter
Speaker 1: of remembering, and that is easy enough. Put your goal
Speaker 1: on your to do list each day and cross it
Speaker 1: off when you do it, and then just keep going.
Speaker 1: That is the secret to sticking with things, and I
Speaker 1: do think sticking with things can be a superpower in
Speaker 1: this world where people often get distracted. Anyone can start something.
Speaker 1: Finishing things is incredibly satisfying. In the meantime, This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening years to making the most of our time.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
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