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 choose the bigger life. When we
Speaker 1: think about how we want to spend our time, keeping
Speaker 1: this phrase in mind opens up possibilities. In a recent
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast episode, I talked about figuring out how many
Speaker 1: hours were in a life. If you plan to live
Speaker 1: to be ninety or so, that means life has about
Speaker 1: eight hundred thousand hours. Some chunk has come and gone
Speaker 1: depending on your age, but that isn't meant to be morbid.
Speaker 1: I think looking rationally at our portfolio of ours can
Speaker 1: help us see time as both precious and plentiful. Part
Speaker 1: of being rational about time means recognizing that all time
Speaker 1: involves trade offs. Here's a phrase to remember. Expectations are infinite.
Speaker 1: Time is finite. We are always choosing choose well. So
Speaker 1: when figuring out how to allocate the hours we have left,
Speaker 1: how can we choose well? Gretchen Reuben, author of The
Speaker 1: Happiness Project, has written that her insight for time decisions
Speaker 1: is choose the bigger Life. I think this is a
Speaker 1: good one for a few reasons. First, it takes us
Speaker 1: outside how we happen to feel at any given moment
Speaker 1: in life. It's often easier not to do things. If
Speaker 1: we only listen to how we felt in the present,
Speaker 1: we might spend our entire lives sitting on the couch
Speaker 1: watching television. The things we would like to say we
Speaker 1: have done are not always the easiest things to do
Speaker 1: at any given moment. This question nudges us to look
Speaker 1: at life as a whole. It nudges us to consider
Speaker 1: our future selves and how we might tell the worry
Speaker 1: of our existence. Many of my international trips were challenging
Speaker 1: in the moment, but I'm so glad I've done them,
Speaker 1: particularly now when such travel is limited, and second, many
Speaker 1: of us need the nudge to think bigger now. I
Speaker 1: know there are some narcissistic types out there who feel
Speaker 1: entitled to anything and everything, but my guess is that
Speaker 1: most listeners of this podcast are incredibly careful sorts. We
Speaker 1: are conscientious. We never want to take on more than
Speaker 1: we can handle. That is a great way to go
Speaker 1: through life. I personally love this personality, but sometimes we
Speaker 1: can handle more than we think we can. You have
Speaker 1: some ideas about how your town should run, but isn't
Speaker 1: politics for people with more time and money? Well maybe,
Speaker 1: but we won't find out until you run for office.
Speaker 1: And in choosing the bigger life, change the conversation whether
Speaker 1: you win or not. You have a good job, but
Speaker 1: you've always wanted to start your own business. Choosing the
Speaker 1: bigger life might mean figuring out how to start your
Speaker 1: entrepreneurship journey, perhaps carefully as a side hustle at first,
Speaker 1: knowing that life is too short not to be happy
Speaker 1: with your work. Choosing the bigger life takes energy, but really,
Speaker 1: what are you saving your energy for? Time is plentiful,
Speaker 1: but time is all so precious. I'm not sure we'll
Speaker 1: get to the end and say, thank goodness, I was
Speaker 1: never tired. Thank goodness, I never pushed hard on anything.
Speaker 1: A good life is worth the trouble. So as you
Speaker 1: think about how to spend your time to day and
Speaker 1: looking forward, try repeating this phrase, choose the bigger life.
Speaker 1: It just might change how you allocate however many hours
Speaker 1: you have left in the meantime. This is Laura, Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod.
Speaker 1: That's b E the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: At i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I
Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Kay get