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 that life is mostly made up of memories.
Speaker 1: We can anticipate the future, but that is largely unknown.
Speaker 1: The present is fleeting memories we truly have. This ratio
Speaker 1: means that it might be worth organizing life to pay
Speaker 1: a bit more attention to memories than we might naturally
Speaker 1: be inclined to do so. When you make your plans
Speaker 1: for the day, or for a weekend, or even for
Speaker 1: your year, my guess is that there are many criteria.
Speaker 1: You figure out what needs to get done, You ask
Speaker 1: what other people are doing. You consider what feels relaxing
Speaker 1: or what is easiest at the moment. For most of us,
Speaker 1: what makes the most or the best memories is not
Speaker 1: going to be the primary consideration, And I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that it should be, but I think it should be
Speaker 1: a bigger consideration than it often is. That is because
Speaker 1: life is made up of memories. The future is uncertain.
Speaker 1: You can barely think about the present before it is gone.
Speaker 1: Memories based on a past that actually happened are the
Speaker 1: most known part of our life. Stories when we plan
Speaker 1: our lives to optimize memories. We create a story, we
Speaker 1: will be able to hold on to one that can
Speaker 1: make our lives feel more like they happened than that
Speaker 1: they were completely forgettable. Time feels stretched out. We don't
Speaker 1: say where did the time go when we remember where
Speaker 1: the time went. What this means in practice is nudging
Speaker 1: ourselves to do things that create more memories. These may
Speaker 1: not always be the easiest or most comfortable things to
Speaker 1: do in the moment, but if we realize that life
Speaker 1: is mostly memory, we might be more motivated. For instance,
Speaker 1: traveling can be fun, but to be honest, big chunks
Speaker 1: of it can be a bother. Plane flights are uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: so as sleeping in new beds. Adjusting to uncertainty can
Speaker 1: be challenging, as as being apart from familiar routines and
Speaker 1: foods and other things. But when you think of your
Speaker 1: memories of any given year, I would guess that any
Speaker 1: major trips you took are one of the key ways
Speaker 1: that you define the year. Oh, yes, that's the summer
Speaker 1: when we went to France. My mother in law h I,
Speaker 1: recently shared some of her memories with the family in
Speaker 1: an album she created for all of us. Many of
Speaker 1: her recollections had to do with her travels. Certainly, you
Speaker 1: will have more memories of, say, a week spent on
Speaker 1: a safari than a week spent in your apartment. Now,
Speaker 1: you can't spend all your weeks on safari, but if
Speaker 1: you have the opportunity to take a trip from time
Speaker 1: to time, it is probably going to be a better
Speaker 1: memory than not traveling, even if not traveling is more comfortable.
Speaker 1: I have tracked my time for over seven years now,
Speaker 1: and I have recently begun studying my time logs from
Speaker 1: six years ago, when the date cycle was the same
Speaker 1: as it was for this past year, December twenty six
Speaker 1: being a Monday. In both twenty twenty two and twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: The normal days of work and kid care and costco
Speaker 1: runs are hard to place. But when I see something
Speaker 1: unusual on my log, something a little adventurous, I can
Speaker 1: conjure up those memories pretty quickly. Memories make past times
Speaker 1: feel more rich and full. Now. Of course, there is
Speaker 1: nothing wrong with routines and the normal rhythm of work
Speaker 1: and kid care and costco runs, but even any given
Speaker 1: week can be made a little different by doing something
Speaker 1: a little different In the deepest days of COVID lockdowns.
Speaker 1: One family I know of made a giant game of
Speaker 1: shoots and ladders with chalk on their driveway. Life is
Speaker 1: a memory, and in normal life that became one. In
Speaker 1: any case, as you plan the next week or the
Speaker 1: next few weeks, try taking into account what memories you
Speaker 1: would like to have of this time. Memories are not
Speaker 1: just a passive result of life happening. They are something
Speaker 1: we can consciously choose to cultivate. Yes, we can have
Speaker 1: memories from things that are just spontaneously occurring, but they
Speaker 1: are also the result of our planning them in and
Speaker 1: choosing to do interesting, adventurous, novel intense things. Maybe not
Speaker 1: every day, but not never either. When we take memory
Speaker 1: into account with our plans, we simply do these things
Speaker 1: more often. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: 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 Pod. You
Speaker 1: can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcasts
Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com that before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters, thanks so much, should I look
Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
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