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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 to consciously turn your mornings into family time

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Speaker 1: before everyone goes their separate ways. You can choose to

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Speaker 1: start the day by nurturing your most important relationships. I

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Speaker 1: first learned the power of mornings many years ago when

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Speaker 1: I was researching a book called What the Most Successful

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Speaker 1: People Do Before Breakfast. Many successful people use the early

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Speaker 1: morning hours for exercise, or strategic thinking, or other important

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Speaker 1: things that life has a way of crowding out. And

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Speaker 1: if these morning warriors have families, they often trade off

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Speaker 1: with their partners or get up before the kids in

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Speaker 1: order to make time for these things. And that's because, well,

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Speaker 1: when we're trying to get large numbers of people ready

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Speaker 1: and out the door, it can be tempting to focus

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Speaker 1: solely on the various steps required to make that happen.

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Speaker 1: And trust me, I know there can be a lot

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Speaker 1: of steps. But the problem with focusing on the logistics

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Speaker 1: is that we miss the opportunity to make this time

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Speaker 1: into something more. I was reminded of this when I

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Speaker 1: got a note from Ryan Holiday about how he spends

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Speaker 1: his mornings. Holiday is the author of the new book

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Speaker 1: Stillness Is the Key, and of several other books, including

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Speaker 1: The Obstacle Is the Way. Holiday tells me that starting

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Speaker 1: earlier this year, I decided I would no longer use

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Speaker 1: my phone for the first one hour that I am awake. Instead,

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Speaker 1: I grab my three year old son and take him

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Speaker 1: for a long walk. We go outside, We get active,

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Speaker 1: and we watch the sun come up as we travel

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Speaker 1: the back roads that surround our farm. Almost invariably, I

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Speaker 1: come home with ideas that I can use in my writing.

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Speaker 1: We come home with memories to tell the rest of

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Speaker 1: the family about instead of just take making a photo.

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Speaker 1: To me, it's about getting some stillness in the morning

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Speaker 1: before the workday starts. And it's ironic that the stillness

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Speaker 1: comes for us from movement. But what works works the

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Speaker 1: key is just not starting the day reacting, letting Twitter

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Speaker 1: or your email inbox dictate the first thing you do

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Speaker 1: during the day. Instead, you should decide, and for me, concentration,

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Speaker 1: family time and fun are what I choose. I think

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Speaker 1: this is a great idea holidays spending time with his kid,

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Speaker 1: but getting exercise and thinking time too. How great to

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Speaker 1: score a trifecta like that, Mornings in general can be

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Speaker 1: a great time for family time. Now I don't have

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Speaker 1: a farm to wander about, but I've started to make

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Speaker 1: a point of sitting at the kitchen table in sequence

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Speaker 1: with all my children as they eat breakfast. The seventh

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Speaker 1: grader is first, and in typical teenager fashion, he's not

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Speaker 1: always the most talkative person at breakfast, but that's all right.

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Speaker 1: I can communicate that I'm interested in his life, and

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Speaker 1: I can make sure he's getting a serving of fruit,

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Speaker 1: and these both count for something. My four year old

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Speaker 1: tends to wander down next, and we have very different conversations.

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Speaker 1: And by the time I've fed my elementary school aged kids,

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Speaker 1: I might have been sitting at that breakfast table for

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Speaker 1: fifty minutes. Fifty minutes is a fair chunk of time,

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Speaker 1: but that's okay. I've found that lingering over breakfast and

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Speaker 1: my coffee puts me in a mood of time abundance. Sure,

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Speaker 1: I have a lot to do, but there's no rush.

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Speaker 1: On the mornings my husband is home, he'll sit there too,

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Speaker 1: and these are often the only chances we get to

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Speaker 1: have two parents focused on one kid, and it's not

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Speaker 1: a disciplinary situation when we have a gap between kid breakfast,

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Speaker 1: the two of us can sit there and talk, which

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Speaker 1: is nice as well. I recognize that sometimes mornings begin

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Speaker 1: early enough and kids are young enough that it's hard

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Speaker 1: to do anything except grab a granola bar and get

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Speaker 1: everyone dressed and strapped into their car seats. But if

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Speaker 1: there is some flexibility, think through your morning routine and

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Speaker 1: think if there might be space to spend a little

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Speaker 1: time doing something other than getting ready. Could you and

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Speaker 1: your spouse share a cup of coffee together on the porch.

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Speaker 1: If you have young kids who wake up really early,

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Speaker 1: could you play or read together for half an hour

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Speaker 1: before you need to hop in the shower. Maybe you

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Speaker 1: get up fifteen minutes before your teens need to get up,

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Speaker 1: and you whip up some scrambled eggs to sit and

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Speaker 1: eat with them, Even if they're not actually talking to you.

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Speaker 1: Eating together is a form of communication in any case.

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Speaker 1: I know there's a story out there that mornings are

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Speaker 1: inevitably rushed and harried. The problem is that when we

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Speaker 1: tell ourselves this story, we start to believe it, and

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Speaker 1: we can choose to structure our lives differently. If the

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Speaker 1: upside is closer relationships with the people we love most.

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Speaker 1: Why not give it a try. In the meantime, this

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

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Speaker 1: most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear

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Speaker 1: 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. Should I look forward to staying in touch.

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts

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Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. H