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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 to recognize that not everything needs to

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Speaker 1: be world class. Some things can just be fit for purpose.

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Speaker 1: This tip, like another one this week, comes from Michael C.

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Speaker 1: Mankin's and Eric Garden's book Time Talent Energy, Overcome Organizational

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Speaker 1: Drag and Unleash your Team's productive power. Mankins and Garden

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Speaker 1: share advice on how to overcome institutional inefficiencies that keep

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Speaker 1: teams from getting great things done. Mankins and Garden note

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Speaker 1: that while people love to talk about being world class,

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Speaker 1: not everything needs to reach those standards. Indeed, not trying

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Speaker 1: to make everything world class freeze up energy for the

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Speaker 1: areas that matter most. If your company makes widgets, well,

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Speaker 1: you might want to make the world's best widgets. But

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Speaker 1: your employee handbook, as long as it answers most of

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Speaker 1: your employees questions, that is fit for purpose, as they

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Speaker 1: call it. In other words, it's good enough. I think

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of wisdom in this for business, sure,

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Speaker 1: but the concept of fit for purpose can be transformative

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Speaker 1: for our personal lives as well. I talk with a

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Speaker 1: lot of high achievers who take it as a given

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Speaker 1: that anything less than straight a's means failure. Not only

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Speaker 1: do they want to excel professionally, they aim to look

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Speaker 1: gorgeous seven, be Volunteer of the Year, have a house

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Speaker 1: that could be on the cover of House Beautiful, and

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Speaker 1: so forth. It's an interesting idea, but here's the thing.

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Speaker 1: If you aim for a plus work on everything, you

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Speaker 1: will inevitably under invest in the places where you can

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Speaker 1: uniquely shine. Time spent polishing your kitchen counters is time

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Speaker 1: not spent talking with your kids. If you are not

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Speaker 1: personally a graphic designer, then the time spent perfecting the

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Speaker 1: graphic design and that employee manual for your small business

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Speaker 1: is time you are not coaching your actual employees or

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Speaker 1: drumming up new business. So your employees are happily busy.

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Speaker 1: You are much better off letting some aspects of your

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Speaker 1: life be good enough or fit for purpose, and saving

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Speaker 1: your greatest efforts for the areas that are most important

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Speaker 1: to you. So let's start thinking this way. Adult life

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Speaker 1: is not a traditional report card. Instead, picture a report

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Speaker 1: card where you are only graded in a few core

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Speaker 1: classes three maybe four. Everything else is past fail. There

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Speaker 1: is zero difference in aiming for a C or an

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Speaker 1: A in a past field class, and if you have

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Speaker 1: to invest extra time to get what would be an

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Speaker 1: A in a past field class, this actively takes time

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Speaker 1: away from the graded ones that count. So let's get

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Speaker 1: comfortable with some sea level work. Did your family eat

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Speaker 1: something reasonably healthy and eat together a few times last week? Awesome?

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Speaker 1: Your meals are fit for purpose? Are your kitchen and

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Speaker 1: bathrooms fairly clean? And no one has stayed home from

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Speaker 1: school because they have nothing to wear? Awesome? There is

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Speaker 1: no white glove home inspection. Your preschooler is fine with

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Speaker 1: grocery store cupcakes. Your friends would love to bring a

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Speaker 1: bottle of wine over while you order in from the

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Speaker 1: local pizza place. That most certainly counts as entertaining, and

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Speaker 1: it frees you up to focus on nurturing your relationships

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Speaker 1: instead of whether you time the appetizers to come out

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Speaker 1: enough before the main course. So the next time you

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Speaker 1: feel pressured to find the perfect gift, or bake a

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Speaker 1: prize winning pie to take to a family get together,

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Speaker 1: or spend the whole day cleaning your house, ask yourself

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Speaker 1: what fit for purpose would look like. What are you

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Speaker 1: trying to accomplish and what will it take to do that.

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Speaker 1: By aiming for fit for purpose instead of the best ever,

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Speaker 1: you can free up time and energy to direct to

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Speaker 1: other places and to be present with the people you love.

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Speaker 1: What I would say is a world class approach. 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 I 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.