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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is about one upside of daily habits that are

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Speaker 1: truly daily. You know that even if you do nothing

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Speaker 1: else on any particular day, you will have done your

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Speaker 1: daily habits. If you choose these habits well, that can

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Speaker 1: make for a reasonably productive day. So, like everyone, I

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Speaker 1: have days that feel frustrating. Sometimes this is because I

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Speaker 1: lack energy to do anything of consequence. Sometimes it's because

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Speaker 1: of other circumstances. There was one particular day recently that

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Speaker 1: prompted this episode when I had a number of important

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Speaker 1: conversations scheduled and all of them got canceled or didn't

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Speaker 1: feature everyone. They should have to make a decision because

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Speaker 1: of various illnesses and such things going around. Like I said, frustrating,

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Speaker 1: But I do have a few things I do every

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Speaker 1: single day as steps toward long term goals. I read

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Speaker 1: a little bit in my year long reading project this year.

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Speaker 1: It's all the works of Jane Austen, and I write

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Speaker 1: a little bit in my year long writing project this year.

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Speaker 1: I'm writing two lines of a sonnet each day, so

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Speaker 1: I will have fifty two sonnets by New Year's So

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Speaker 1: even on a day when nothing else has happened, I

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Speaker 1: know I will have read ten pages of Jane Austen

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Speaker 1: and written one seventh of a sonnet. It's not much,

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Speaker 1: but it isn't nothing. I have made some progress on

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Speaker 1: long term things. The day is a total loss, and

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Speaker 1: much of life is mental anyway, whether you are productive

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Speaker 1: or not is mostly a matter of whether you feel

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Speaker 1: productive or not. In the grand scheme of things, it

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Speaker 1: probably doesn't matter what any of us do. But when

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Speaker 1: you feel a day hasn't been a total loss, you

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Speaker 1: might be more inclined to make a little more progress

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Speaker 1: on lots of things, or at least be in a

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Speaker 1: more cheerful mood. So with that in mind, perhaps you'd

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Speaker 1: like to start some sort of daily habit that could

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Speaker 1: give you a baseline sense of accomplishment. For something to

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Speaker 1: become a successful daily habit, it needs to be pretty doable.

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Speaker 1: It can't take much time, ideally just a few minutes.

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Speaker 1: It has to be something you find reasonably enjoyable, and

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Speaker 1: it can't be logistically complex, or you won't do it

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Speaker 1: while you're traveling or on weekends or any other time.

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Speaker 1: When you might not be around your normal tools and

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Speaker 1: environment or have your usual schedule. But if you write

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Speaker 1: a thank you note to someone every single day, you

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Speaker 1: know that even on a day that feels terrible, at

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Speaker 1: least you wrote a thank you note. If you listen

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Speaker 1: to ten minutes of box music every day, then even

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Speaker 1: on a terrible day, you will have listened to ten

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Speaker 1: minutes of great music. And if you have listened to

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Speaker 1: something amazing, how terrible can the day really be? So

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Speaker 1: figure out what you could do as an everyday habit,

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Speaker 1: and you will be able to find a bright side

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Speaker 1: of even a dismal day. Now, obviously, if the day

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Speaker 1: is truly horrendous in certain ways, you might not be

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Speaker 1: able to do your daily habit. But for most run

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Speaker 1: of the mill bad days, you will. And then maybe

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Speaker 1: the day, well it seems so bad. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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Speaker 1: the most of our text. Hey, everybody, I'd love to

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Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

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Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at before Breakfast Pod that's b E the

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Speaker 1: number four then breakfast Pod. You can also shoot me

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Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com

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Speaker 1: that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters,

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Speaker 1: thanks so much.

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Speaker 2: Should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast

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Speaker 2: is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,

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Speaker 2: visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen to

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Speaker 2: your favorite shows. M hmm.