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 figure out what specific barriers are
Speaker 1: keeping you from doing something that you'd like to do.
Speaker 1: When you know what's stopping you, you might be able
Speaker 1: to solve the problem. Hopefully, you are the sort of
Speaker 1: gung hope person who makes whatever you want in life
Speaker 1: happen immediately. Alas when it comes to minor irritations, many
Speaker 1: of us have a tendency to make do or to
Speaker 1: just muddle along. Maybe there's a way to improve the situation,
Speaker 1: but it's not so terrible, so well, onward we go.
Speaker 1: I can think of a few of these situations in
Speaker 1: my own life. For instance, I've been feeling rather sleep
Speaker 1: deprived lately. I blame the toddler. I realized I needed
Speaker 1: to go to bed earlier because of the toddler's early mornings,
Speaker 1: but getting the big kids to bed pushed my bedtime
Speaker 1: later into the evening. But I thought about it, what
Speaker 1: was actually stopping me from going to bed earlier. I
Speaker 1: realized I could make sure my part of the six
Speaker 1: year olds bedtime routine was done earlier. On weeknights, I
Speaker 1: could take the older children's phones at nine o'clock too.
Speaker 1: Then my husband could make sure everyone had the lights
Speaker 1: out at a reasonable time, and on weekends he could
Speaker 1: get the six year old to bed solo as well.
Speaker 1: That seems like a reasonable trade off if I am
Speaker 1: the one waking up at five am with the toddler.
Speaker 1: Once I figured that out, I went to sleep by
Speaker 1: PM several nights in a row, and wow, if you
Speaker 1: go to bed at you feel fine at five, even
Speaker 1: if you've been up once in the night. When I
Speaker 1: realized that I didn't have to oversee all bedtimes, this
Speaker 1: opened up possibilities. Maybe you can identify a specific barrier
Speaker 1: that is keeping you from doing something. You'd like to
Speaker 1: write in the mornings, but you use the twenty minutes
Speaker 1: before your kids get up to make lunches. Here's an idea.
Speaker 1: What if you don't make lunches, what if people buy
Speaker 1: or make their own. If that is a specific barrier,
Speaker 1: you can dispatch with it and get your time back.
Speaker 1: Maybe you want to go to the gym, but it
Speaker 1: always seems inconvenient. Well, what if you did workout videos
Speaker 1: at home, or what if you joined a gym that
Speaker 1: you actually drove past on your way to and from work. Now,
Speaker 1: just to lay it out here, Sometimes we realize the
Speaker 1: barriers are mostly in our heads. Maybe you want to
Speaker 1: have family dinners, but you don't get home from work
Speaker 1: until six thirty. Say you assume it's impossible, But what
Speaker 1: if you all ate later. There is no law that
Speaker 1: family dinner has to happen at six. What if you
Speaker 1: still considered it family dinner if you ordered in or
Speaker 1: eight a rotisserie chicken and bagged salad picked up during
Speaker 1: a five minute stop at the supermarket. Consider what is
Speaker 1: actually stopping you? If it is just that, well, everyone
Speaker 1: knows that you can't do X or, but we've always
Speaker 1: done why, Well, I can assure you there is someone
Speaker 1: on this planet of seven billion people doing things differently
Speaker 1: and doing just fine. Maybe you can work it out too.
Speaker 1: If you realize you've been telling yourself that you have
Speaker 1: to join the gym that's further away because it's fifteen
Speaker 1: dollars a month cheaper, Well, you don't save money when
Speaker 1: you never use something. Or maybe you dig deep and
Speaker 1: realize you chose the far away jim because you want
Speaker 1: an excuse not to go. I am not judging. This
Speaker 1: is all about figuring out the specific barriers, because once
Speaker 1: you know what is stopping you, you can decide to
Speaker 1: either do something about it or recognize that you can't
Speaker 1: do anything about it, or maybe you just don't want to.
Speaker 1: But whatever choice it is, this can be mentally clarifying.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod
Speaker 1: that's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at iHeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I
Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from I
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H