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 it might rain, so, especially if you
Speaker 1: are planning a lot of outdoor fun this time of year,
Speaker 1: you might want to consciously figure out some backup plans
Speaker 1: for rainy days. That way, no matter the weather, you
Speaker 1: have something to look forward to, a truth that is
Speaker 1: literal and metaphorical as well. I wrote this episode at
Speaker 1: a point in early May when the past two weekends
Speaker 1: were just incredibly rainy. Given that it is spring, there
Speaker 1: were a lot of outdoor events that had to be
Speaker 1: rescheduled or were just canceled. In general, I try to
Speaker 1: do some longer runs and pretty places on weekends, but
Speaker 1: if it's pouring, that is close to zero fun, and
Speaker 1: so the runs tend not to happen. Now, of course,
Speaker 1: it could rain in a metaphorical sense too. My weekend
Speaker 1: plans for one of those rainy weekends also involved one
Speaker 1: of my kids doing a fair number of activities. Then
Speaker 1: on Saturday morning he started feeling sick. He didn't wind
Speaker 1: up doing any of his activities, and all the plans
Speaker 1: that had been built around him being at one of
Speaker 1: those things couldn't happen. I know this is the sort
Speaker 1: of thing that it is easy to get frustrated about.
Speaker 1: But rain is inevitable, so are kid illnesses or people's
Speaker 1: planes being delayed? Are people canceling for all sorts of reasons,
Speaker 1: some good, some not. I believe that truly enjoying your
Speaker 1: leisure time requires being prepared for that possibility. Fortunately, if
Speaker 1: you think about this ahead of time, it is not
Speaker 1: that hard to come up with backup plans that might
Speaker 1: also be fun. As you are planning your weekends, for instance,
Speaker 1: you might simply identify those things that have a reasonable
Speaker 1: probability of not happening. A baseball game has a reasonable
Speaker 1: probability of getting rained out. A half marathon is more
Speaker 1: likely to go on rain or shine. But the uncertainty
Speaker 1: on that side is you being sick or injured. So
Speaker 1: figure out what could go wrong, and then figure out
Speaker 1: what you would do instead that might also be fun. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, if your neighborhood cookout gets rained out, maybe
Speaker 1: you'll go to a movie. If the Little League game
Speaker 1: is canceled, you'll go to the science museum. If a
Speaker 1: kid is sick, you'll spend some extra time doing a
Speaker 1: new puzzle you bought, or reading that page turner book
Speaker 1: during the time that you might have gone somewhere, or
Speaker 1: maybe you can move things around. I was supposed to
Speaker 1: take my daughter to lunch that weekend when her little
Speaker 1: brother got sick. My husband was coming back from the
Speaker 1: airport and was delayed, so when the little guy couldn't
Speaker 1: go to his class, we couldn't leave him. But we regrouped,
Speaker 1: figured out what time my husband's plane was landing, and
Speaker 1: left for a very late lunch. The second he pulled
Speaker 1: in the driveway, we still had our fun. Rain can
Speaker 1: be disappointing, but it is also inevitable. The key to
Speaker 1: managing the disappointment is having other stuff that you are
Speaker 1: absolutely cool with doing. If Option A can't happen, a
Speaker 1: good Option B means you don't worry so much about
Speaker 1: the rain. You are going to enjoy yourself either way.
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 E the number four, then breakfast pod. You
Speaker 1: can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts
Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com that before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, should I look
Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
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