Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of my Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to use it now. Many of us
Speaker 1: are tempted to save things for special occasions, but life
Speaker 1: itself can be a special occasion, and we don't want
Speaker 1: to accidentally wait too long. A few years ago I
Speaker 1: received an absolutely lovely little notebook. I should add here
Speaker 1: that I am infatuated with little notebooks in general, but
Speaker 1: this one had some gold foil on the details and
Speaker 1: just lovely colors, perfectly exquisite. I didn't want to sully
Speaker 1: this note book with random work day thoughts, so I
Speaker 1: put it unopened in my desk drawer until I had
Speaker 1: worthy enough musings to justify such a beautiful home. Well,
Speaker 1: you can guess what happened time past. I didn't look
Speaker 1: in the drawer. About two years later, I pulled the
Speaker 1: notebook out, looked in it, and realized that it was
Speaker 1: actually a calendar for a year that had passed, so
Speaker 1: it wasn't of much use as anything any more. Maybe
Speaker 1: you have had this experience too. We don't want to
Speaker 1: use the good china for a random day, but then
Speaker 1: we never quite have days that seem worthy of the china,
Speaker 1: and the china sits unused. Maybe you have an entire
Speaker 1: dining room or formal living room that goes unused. We've
Speaker 1: all heard stories of people saving a bottle of wine
Speaker 1: for a special occasion and then something's gone wrong in
Speaker 1: storage and the bottle is ruined. Several years ago, the
Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal's wine columnists started an event they called
Speaker 1: Open that Bottle Night. It is now an annual event
Speaker 1: in late February. They encouraged readers to open whatever fine
Speaker 1: wine they were saving and just enjoy it. Even if
Speaker 1: it happened to be an otherwise ordinary day, they would
Speaker 1: all celebrate together. I love this idea, and I think
Speaker 1: it's great for all kinds of things. Decide that one
Speaker 1: Saturday a month you will use the good china. Everyone
Speaker 1: can dress up if they like, or you could just
Speaker 1: eat your cereal out of a nice bowl. Do you
Speaker 1: risk breaking it? Sure, but it risks getting broken sitting
Speaker 1: in a closet too, And as I've seen with some
Speaker 1: estate sales I have witnessed recently, it all gets sold
Speaker 1: for pennies on the dollar. In the end, you may
Speaker 1: as well get some enjoyment out of it. Now, I
Speaker 1: know that first some of us, this is easier said
Speaker 1: than done. I still have a pile of nice notebooks
Speaker 1: sitting in my desk drawers. I keep accumulating them and
Speaker 1: then judging my thoughts unworthy of such fine paper. Real
Speaker 1: estate people give me things like nice soaps, and then
Speaker 1: they sit in the closet until they go bad. While
Speaker 1: I'm using Irish Spring, not because I am necessarily making
Speaker 1: an active choice, but because the nice soap seemed too
Speaker 1: nice to use. Even pretty packaged cosmetics do sometimes should
Speaker 1: I wear such a nice lipstick on a Tuesday. But
Speaker 1: the soap will be worthless eventually, and since it exists,
Speaker 1: better to use it, better to get pleasure from it
Speaker 1: rather than having it wind up in a landfill unused.
Speaker 1: So in any case, if you are like me, let's
Speaker 1: commit to using one thing this week that we have
Speaker 1: been saving for some future time which may never happen.
Speaker 1: Use that gift card, use that nice soap, open that bottle,
Speaker 1: and go ahead and write your grocery list and that
Speaker 1: lovely little notebook. At least the trip to the grocery
Speaker 1: store will feel extravagant. And these days we need all
Speaker 1: the adventures we can get in the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the number four, then
Speaker 1: Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an
Speaker 1: email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot
Speaker 1: com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio. For
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