Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 2: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 2: tip is that the next few weeks are the preseason
Speaker 2: for resolutions. If you get a lot of New Year,
Speaker 2: New Ye sorts of energy, consciously using the next few
Speaker 2: weeks to practice your goals will get you in shape
Speaker 2: to start the New year strong. So I love self
Speaker 2: improvement in general, of course, which means I am fascinated
Speaker 2: by the concept of New Year's resolutions. The traditional and
Speaker 2: perhaps jaded thinking is that most of them fail, but
Speaker 2: that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the concept. Honestly,
Speaker 2: I just think most people do it wrong. There's a
Speaker 2: lot of delusional thinking out there. Sometimes people set goals
Speaker 2: that they don't actually want to do. Sometimes people haven't
Speaker 2: thought through the constituent steps of their goals and the
Speaker 2: logistics required to fit those steps into their lives. And
Speaker 2: sometimes we believe that we will become entirely different people
Speaker 2: on January first, somehow capable of doing feats that seemed
Speaker 2: hard before. As someone who has kept a number of
Speaker 2: New Year's resolutions, I do think it's quite possible to
Speaker 2: set goals and follow through. But and this is a
Speaker 2: big bud, we have to be realistic. New habits often
Speaker 2: take a lot of practice, figuring out what works, what
Speaker 2: is compelling, what fits with life, and doing these things
Speaker 2: over and over again until they seem more rote. You
Speaker 2: can ramp that up on January first, but if you'd
Speaker 2: like to start out strong in the new year, another
Speaker 2: option is to use these next few weeks as practice time.
Speaker 2: For lots of sports, the official season is preceded by
Speaker 2: a preseason. The teams practice and sometimes do some competitions
Speaker 2: that don't officially count. The purpose of all of this
Speaker 2: is to get in shape for the actual season by
Speaker 2: approximating a lot of what happens when it's game time.
Speaker 2: We can do this for resolutions as well. What could
Speaker 2: you do in the next few weeks to get in
Speaker 2: shape for your goals? How can you engage in the
Speaker 2: behavior you are hoping.
Speaker 1: To adopt in a low key way. One of my
Speaker 1: goals for twenty twenty four is to listen to all
Speaker 1: the works of Bach. So these days I am creating
Speaker 1: a calendar of what I need to listen to each day,
Speaker 1: and I'm also experimenting with how the listening will fit
Speaker 1: in my life, when can I listen to thirty to
Speaker 1: forty minutes of Bach each day? I have started listening
Speaker 1: to a few pieces while driving around or while doing
Speaker 1: my daily stretching. I'm practicing what it will be like
Speaker 1: to truly move forward with this resolution. Likewise, I am
Speaker 1: resolving to do my back exercises every day in order
Speaker 1: to strengthen my core in my back and hopefully solve
Speaker 1: some back pain that I have been experiencing. So since
Speaker 1: I know that is my resolution, I have gone ahead
Speaker 1: and started it. Now, doing ten to fifteen minutes of
Speaker 1: exercises and stretches each day, I see where it can
Speaker 1: fit in. I have learned to put it on my
Speaker 1: daily to do list so I don't forget it. By
Speaker 1: the time New Year's Day rolls around, I will have
Speaker 1: been doing these stretches for approximately six weeks in a row,
Speaker 1: which means that turning it into a New Year's resolution
Speaker 1: will mostly be about continuing the habit. How might you
Speaker 1: treat the next few weeks as goals preseason? How could
Speaker 1: you practice your resolutions so that come January first you
Speaker 1: will be well positioned for success. There's absolutely nothing magical
Speaker 1: about January first, but there also is something magical about January. First,
Speaker 1: that said, it won't be magical if you don't set
Speaker 1: yourself up to succeed. Treating the next few weeks as
Speaker 1: your resolution preseason just might get you in the right mindset.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.