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 to try things for three to six months.
Speaker 1: If you are not sure about something, aim to do
Speaker 1: it for a trial period and see how it goes.
Speaker 1: Few things have to be done forever, but you also
Speaker 1: want to give things enough runway that they can take
Speaker 1: off if they are going to in big time. My
Speaker 1: new book about time management, I talk about being open
Speaker 1: to serendipity. Creating a rich and full life means being
Speaker 1: open to new opportunities and adventures and relationships, some of
Speaker 1: which could turn out to be fantastic. Of course, it's
Speaker 1: hard to know what will be a good use of
Speaker 1: your time and what won't be. You might join a
Speaker 1: volunteer group looking to make more friends and find it
Speaker 1: tough going. You may take a pottery class and feel
Speaker 1: frustrated with the work. You might start a newsletter hoping
Speaker 1: to build a platform about a book idea, but it
Speaker 1: can feel like a slog. You don't really know if
Speaker 1: something is the right thing to do or not, so
Speaker 1: why not try it as an experiment. You want to
Speaker 1: give things enough time to get somewhere, But you also
Speaker 1: don't want to feel oppressed that you're going to have
Speaker 1: to do something forever. You should feel free to pull
Speaker 1: the plug if you want after enough time, so give
Speaker 1: things three to six months. When you start new projects,
Speaker 1: you can explicitly say to yourself that you will go
Speaker 1: all in for three to six months, and then you
Speaker 1: will evaluate is anyone reading your newsletter or perhaps the
Speaker 1: overall readership isn't great, but certain posts get a ton
Speaker 1: of engagement. This is good information to know, too, and
Speaker 1: it wasn't a waste of time to figure that out.
Speaker 1: If you decide to try running, you could try running
Speaker 1: for six months and see how it goes. It definitely
Speaker 1: takes a few weeks for running to feel comfortable, but
Speaker 1: by six months in you will be over a lot
Speaker 1: of that and regularly running a few miles at a
Speaker 1: time if you want. At that point you can evaluate
Speaker 1: if you enjoy it more than other forms of exercise,
Speaker 1: or if all things considered, you'd like to keep doing
Speaker 1: pilates classes instead. I find three to six months is
Speaker 1: a long enough period of time that you can really
Speaker 1: try things out. Some stuff takes longer and some probably
Speaker 1: takes less, but this is a good enough amount of
Speaker 1: time that daily mishaps are absorbed into the overall experience.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, you can see the finish line.
Speaker 1: It doesn't feel infinite. If you really find yourself not
Speaker 1: happy with how things are going, you can decide that
Speaker 1: come December you will stop doing the thing guilt free.
Speaker 1: It will be December before long. In many cases, people
Speaker 1: quit things that could have worked out if they'd stuck
Speaker 1: with it. In many cases, a little bit more resilience
Speaker 1: and discipline would be wise. There are good returns to
Speaker 1: not getting distracted too early. On the other hand, we
Speaker 1: don't need to stick with things forever. So if there
Speaker 1: is something you are thinking of trying, see if you
Speaker 1: can structure the project to do it for three to
Speaker 1: six months, you will learn a lot and may have
Speaker 1: something new and wonderful in your life. Or if not,
Speaker 1: you haven't wasted much time and you have probably learned something.
Speaker 1: If you pay attention, like at least what you don't like.
Speaker 1: Often that is worth knowing too. In the meantime, this
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Thanks for listening to before breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas or feedback. You can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.