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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of my Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is that most things can be changed. If

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Speaker 1: you are overwhelmed by needing to make a lot of decisions,

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Speaker 1: sometimes getting your head around the idea that few things

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Speaker 1: are truly permanent can bring down the pressure a lot.

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Speaker 1: As I am writing this, we have been living in

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Speaker 1: our new house for about two weeks. In the course

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Speaker 1: of our year long renovation project, I had to make

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Speaker 1: a lot of decisions. Everything from tile colors and shapes,

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Speaker 1: to drawer polls, to the trim on the carpet runners

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Speaker 1: on the stairs had to be decided. I had help

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Speaker 1: with most of those decisions, but still it was a lot.

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Speaker 1: And now I am living with all of those decisions.

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Speaker 1: For the most part, I am happy with them. I

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Speaker 1: like the feel of my kitchen cabinet handles in my hands.

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Speaker 1: I like the iceberg shade of blue in my bedroom,

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Speaker 1: which is a different shade than I originally chose. When

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Speaker 1: I walked in after the room had been painted, I

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Speaker 1: just didn't like what was there. But it turns out

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Speaker 1: that what has been painted once can be painted again.

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Speaker 1: Even though I had made a decision. It didn't need

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Speaker 1: to be permanent. It could be changed. So it goes

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Speaker 1: with a great many things in life. As we are

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Speaker 1: unpacking things and putting them away, those decisions can feel overwhelming.

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Speaker 1: What if I choose the wrong closet drawer for my socks,

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Speaker 1: Will I be pulling my socks out of this drawer

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Speaker 1: and being a little unhappy about it every day for

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Speaker 1: the rest of my life. Well, no, I just need

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Speaker 1: to put my socks away somewhere, And if I decide

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Speaker 1: after a few months, or even after a few years,

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Speaker 1: that I chose wrong, I can move the socks. Even

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Speaker 1: some big decisions can be revisited. People do go back

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Speaker 1: to school, people do end relationships or sometimes even restart them.

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Speaker 1: I know people who have left a company to do

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Speaker 1: something else and then decided to go back to their

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Speaker 1: original employer. Some things are permanent, or should be, but

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Speaker 1: a great many things are not. This is a bitter

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Speaker 1: sweet realization as we see children grow up and as

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Speaker 1: we move out of homes where we raised them, and

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Speaker 1: as loved ones pass on. But it can also be

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Speaker 1: a comforting realization as we try to move through day

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Speaker 1: to day life in a world of seemingly infinite choice.

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Speaker 1: Now it is true that with a great many decisions,

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Speaker 1: the original choice sticks just because it takes effort to change.

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Speaker 1: I was reading a discussion thread recently where a number

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Speaker 1: of people were ruing not having redone their floors when

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Speaker 1: they moved into their new houses. Getting everything off the

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Speaker 1: floor to put in carpet or take out carpet and

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Speaker 1: stay in the hardwood floors basically feels like moving again.

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Speaker 1: But it is not really a full move, And in fact,

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Speaker 1: you could give yourself a few weeks of misery and

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Speaker 1: at the end have changed the original choice. If you

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Speaker 1: accepted that the cost was a few weeks of hassle,

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Speaker 1: then the number of things that could be changed rises considerably.

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Speaker 1: I also think that we should build in time to

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Speaker 1: revisit decisions that may have been made in haste. A

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Speaker 1: great many things in life don't matter, but if something

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Speaker 1: does bother you build in time to tackle nagging tasks.

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Speaker 1: If you keep finding yourself annoyed by where your socks are,

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Speaker 1: then spend some time, maybe on a Saturday morning, during

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Speaker 1: nagging task time, thinking if there is a better solution,

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Speaker 1: and take advantage of forced shifts to rethink other decisions.

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Speaker 1: We had always had some of our kids take the bus,

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Speaker 1: but with our new location it makes less sense, and

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Speaker 1: so that changes many aspects of the morning routine that

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Speaker 1: hadn't been thought through before. It can be easy to

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Speaker 1: get overwhelmed with decisions, but when you remind yourself that

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Speaker 1: most things can be changed, this let's you be more rational.

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Speaker 1: Maybe it is not the perfect choice, but it is

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Speaker 1: a choice and probably you will like it. If not,

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Speaker 1: after a trial period you can decide on something else.

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Speaker 1: It won't be the end of the world. 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 time. 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 p o D. You can also

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Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart

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Speaker 1: media dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out with

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Speaker 1: all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to

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Speaker 1: staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit

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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.