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 keep yourself on track for your
Speaker 1: long term goals by revisiting your New Year's resolutions. Lots
Speaker 1: of people make resolutions in January. If you believe the articles,
Speaker 1: the vast majority of people have fallen off the wagon
Speaker 1: by about February three. Long term change is hard. In general,
Speaker 1: people are better off structuring their lives to make good
Speaker 1: choices easy than they are relying on willpower. You can
Speaker 1: hope you'll find time to walk for thirty minutes a day,
Speaker 1: or you could pay for a regular parking spot at
Speaker 1: a garage that's a fifteen minute walk from your office.
Speaker 1: Then you'll find yourself walking thirty minutes daily, regardless of
Speaker 1: what you do. In any case, there's nothing magical about
Speaker 1: January to inspire change. The new year suggests a fresh start,
Speaker 1: but you can create a fresh start anytime you want.
Speaker 1: We are now about halfway through the year. This episode
Speaker 1: is first launching near the beginning of July, which is
Speaker 1: the beginning of the third quarter of the year. If
Speaker 1: you made New Year's resolutions, can you remember what they were.
Speaker 1: If so, great, If not, ask your friends and family
Speaker 1: or hunt through old social media posts. Try to list
Speaker 1: the resolution or two you felt most excited about. Now
Speaker 1: ask yourself, is this still something i'd value for my life?
Speaker 1: It's possible the answer is no. Maybe you wanted to
Speaker 1: take on a big professional project and then you switched jobs.
Speaker 1: Are you're dealing with a family situation that's going to
Speaker 1: preclude big new undertakings. Life happens. This is fine. Our
Speaker 1: current selves don't need to carry our past selves burdens.
Speaker 1: But maybe your resolutions are still relevant. You'd like to
Speaker 1: give yourself a bedtime. You'd like to walk at lunch
Speaker 1: three days a week. These ideas are as smart in
Speaker 1: July as they are in January. If the resolution still
Speaker 1: works for your life, then here's my challenge to you.
Speaker 1: Put this resolution into your life this week. Don't say forever,
Speaker 1: aim for just this week. See how it goes. See
Speaker 1: if it works for you. If it doesn't, ask why.
Speaker 1: If you don't manage to walk at lunch, it's probably
Speaker 1: not because you're a horrible and undisciplined person. A more
Speaker 1: likely explanation is that you're eleven am meetings. Keep running over,
Speaker 1: or your colleagues ask you to grab lunch with them,
Speaker 1: and you value building relationships. That's great. So maybe you
Speaker 1: need to walk later in the day or before work,
Speaker 1: or maybe you need to have a conversation with the
Speaker 1: person who runs those eleven am meetings on setting agendas.
Speaker 1: See what you can do, and then you can try
Speaker 1: again next week. But there's no reason to wait until
Speaker 1: January to try anything you think would improve your life.
Speaker 1: And there are a lot of reasons not to wait.
Speaker 1: Here's a big one. There's still a lot of time
Speaker 1: before January. You can do a lot of things in
Speaker 1: six months. The popular couch to five k running program,
Speaker 1: for instance, takes nine weeks. That means that if you
Speaker 1: start now when this show first airs, you could run
Speaker 1: a five k by mid September, And with that base,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing you'd be able to run a ten k
Speaker 1: by December. Anyone able to do that is definitely winning
Speaker 1: in the fitness department. Likewise, if you start setting a
Speaker 1: bedtime now, it would be a strong habit by December.
Speaker 1: Think of all the many many mornings you'll wake up
Speaker 1: well rested before then. Starting now is a gift to
Speaker 1: your future self. While January would have been a great
Speaker 1: time to start. If you didn't, that's all done. July
Speaker 1: is a great time to start too. I love that
Speaker 1: proverb that the best time to plant a tree was
Speaker 1: twenty years ago. The second best time is now. And
Speaker 1: just a note for people pondering future New Year's resolutions,
Speaker 1: I like to take some of the pressure off January.
Speaker 1: Each year I make quarterly goals rather than New Year's resolutions.
Speaker 1: For each quarter, I make a goal in three categories career, relationships, self.
Speaker 1: That way I can set intentions for the whole year,
Speaker 1: twelve of them spread across all spheres of life. I
Speaker 1: get lots of fresh starts, and even better, if I
Speaker 1: know a goal is set for Q three, I don't
Speaker 1: have to think about it until then. I know I'll
Speaker 1: do it, but I can focus on other things until
Speaker 1: we get there. So what were your resolutions last January?
Speaker 1: Can you give yourself the fresh start of the second
Speaker 1: half of the year. Let me know how it goes
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart Media dot com. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Hey everybody, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,
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Speaker 1: the number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can
Speaker 1: also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast. At
Speaker 1: i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look
Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
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