Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to recognize that sometimes things are easier
Speaker 1: than you think. Sometimes, of course, they are harder, harder
Speaker 1: than you imagined. But when we guess wrong, sometimes we
Speaker 1: guess in ways that make things seem more difficult than
Speaker 1: they turn out to be, and so we can maintain
Speaker 1: some optimism because we won't know how hard they are
Speaker 1: until we try. At some point this fall, I realized
Speaker 1: after some research that the chronic sore throats and congestion
Speaker 1: I've been experiencing might be a reaction to dairy products.
Speaker 1: So I thought I would try cutting them out for
Speaker 1: a while. And some parts of that seemed easy. I
Speaker 1: like yogurt a lot, but there are other x I
Speaker 1: like cereal with milk, but there are other breakfasts. My
Speaker 1: morning coffee ritual, on the other hand, was an entirely
Speaker 1: different matter. I have been putting milk in my coffee
Speaker 1: since I began drinking coffee at age fifteen, which was
Speaker 1: a while ago. A few years ago, I upgraded this
Speaker 1: ritual to putting real cream in my coffee that thick,
Speaker 1: rich cream in my coffee was what got me up
Speaker 1: in the morning through some hard early years of children
Speaker 1: who didn't really sleep. So I was wondering how on
Speaker 1: earth I was going to change that ingrained habit. But
Speaker 1: I tried drinking my coffee black one morning, and you
Speaker 1: know what, it was fine. I did it the next morning,
Speaker 1: also fine, And just like that, I realized that changing
Speaker 1: this twenty seven year daily habit was going to be way,
Speaker 1: way easier than I thought. Now it helped that I
Speaker 1: actually did start to physically feel better. Pain turns out
Speaker 1: to be a powerful motivator for habit change. But a
Speaker 1: few months in I haven't been tempted to explore the
Speaker 1: plethora of non dairy alternatives. Black coffee is great. What
Speaker 1: I thought was a deeply ingreened habit was just something
Speaker 1: I chose randomly at age fifteen and then never questioned.
Speaker 1: Some things are hard, this was easy. Maybe you too
Speaker 1: are thinking of making a big change. Maybe it's a
Speaker 1: dietary change, or maybe it's shifting your sleeping schedule to
Speaker 1: go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: giving up the snooze button or sugar in your coffee.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's starting a new calendar process or a new workflow.
Speaker 1: All of these things would be difficult. They could be
Speaker 1: very difficult, But on the other hand, they might also
Speaker 1: be not that hard. The truth is, you just don't
Speaker 1: know until you try, and if you've never tried, you
Speaker 1: won't know. If you don't try because you think this
Speaker 1: will be hard, you'll never know how easy a change
Speaker 1: might have been. I am not saying it will be,
Speaker 1: but if I was able to stop drinking cream in
Speaker 1: my coffee overnight after twenty seven years, then there might
Speaker 1: be hope. This realization has given me a nudge to
Speaker 1: look at other things that I just might be able
Speaker 1: to change if I tried. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to or from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Pod that's b E the number four, then
Speaker 1: Breakfast p O D. You can also shoot me an
Speaker 1: email at Before Breakfast Podcast at i heeart media dot
Speaker 1: com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much. I look forward to Staying in Touch
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of i heart Radio. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.