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 to do some rather than none. Even if
Speaker 1: you can't do your normal routines or meet your goals
Speaker 1: for a day, doing a little something is often better
Speaker 1: than nothing at all. You keep the habit and make
Speaker 1: a little progress, which means there might be less to
Speaker 1: make up later. So we have all been there. You
Speaker 1: plan to go to the gym after work, but in
Speaker 1: the work day with little energy, you are trying to
Speaker 1: read through an immense book, but reading much of it
Speaker 1: on a certain day seems daunting. You resolve to work
Speaker 1: on your novel, but you are facing a creative block
Speaker 1: or the day is rapidly getting away from you. We
Speaker 1: are human. From years of studying people's habits and goals,
Speaker 1: I am pretty sure that we often set way too
Speaker 1: lofty expectations for what we can do on any given day.
Speaker 1: These expectations then feel overwhelming in the moment, and we
Speaker 1: give up on the hard days and then have trouble
Speaker 1: getting back in better to keep expectations low. But even
Speaker 1: if you haven't set low expectations on any given day,
Speaker 1: it might help to lower them a bit. Do some
Speaker 1: rather than none, and you maintain the habit while moving forward.
Speaker 1: So if you are too tired to do a full workout,
Speaker 1: but the gym is on the way home, tell yourself
Speaker 1: you'll just stop there for five minutes. You will lift
Speaker 1: that set of dumbbells once, or you will simply read
Speaker 1: one page and that giant book you're attacking one page,
Speaker 1: you don't have to write for an hour. You will
Speaker 1: just write one sentence. These choices to do some rather
Speaker 1: than none, do a few good things many times. Once
Speaker 1: you have started, you will keep going. You are at
Speaker 1: the gem, so it doesn't seem like a big deal
Speaker 1: to move on to the leg press after those dumbbells
Speaker 1: or something cool happens on that one page you are reading,
Speaker 1: and you want to find out what happens next. But
Speaker 1: even if you only do a little bit, you haven't
Speaker 1: stopped the habit. You have made some progress, which is
Speaker 1: less progress you will have to make in the future.
Speaker 1: That is, one fewer pages to read or one less
Speaker 1: sentence to write. It does add up. I think the
Speaker 1: tendency to do none is a way to let ourselves
Speaker 1: off the hook. We design our habits for our best days.
Speaker 1: Instead of thinking through the logistics of how things will
Speaker 1: work on bad days, doing none allows us to treat
Speaker 1: bad days as total aberrations. Of course I couldn't go
Speaker 1: to the gym given that stressful meeting. Of Course I
Speaker 1: can't write anything in my novel if I just had
Speaker 1: to take a kid to urgent care. But is that
Speaker 1: true for many things? The answer is that you can
Speaker 1: still do a little bit. Doing a little bit helps
Speaker 1: diminish this all or nothing thinking that usually isn't helpful.
Speaker 1: You aren't going to get many perfect days in life,
Speaker 1: so figure out what you can do on the bad
Speaker 1: days and make those things happen. It is still something,
Speaker 1: and something is almost always better than nothing. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four,
Speaker 1: then breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com.
Speaker 1: That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
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