Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 2: Today's tip is to consider being generous with your time.
Speaker 2: While boundaries are wise, people are generally a good use
Speaker 2: of time, so be generous with time when you can.
Speaker 2: There is a famous passage from First Corinthians that has
Speaker 2: read at weddings about love. You probably remember how this
Speaker 2: starts from the last wedding you went to, with the
Speaker 2: statement that love is patient. I was pondering recently what
Speaker 2: it means for love to be patient, and I realized
Speaker 2: that fundamentally, patience means being generous with time. When love
Speaker 2: is patient, it means we aren't rushing off to the
Speaker 2: next thing. We are giving people enough time to be
Speaker 2: heard and seen. This plays out in all sorts of ways.
Speaker 2: It can mean chatting.
Speaker 1: With a teenager even though it is bedtime and you
Speaker 1: are tired. It can mean listening to your spouse as
Speaker 1: worries even though you are annoyed about something else here
Speaker 1: she did. It can mean taking time to encourage a
Speaker 1: direct report, even in the middle of a packed day.
Speaker 1: It can mean graciously listening to your elderly neighbor tell
Speaker 1: that same story about her grandchild. Again. Time is ultimately limited,
Speaker 1: and so this generosity is costly in a way that
Speaker 1: being profligate with money is not. You can make more money,
Speaker 1: you cannot make more time. And so a lot of
Speaker 1: time management literature talks about saying no more often, and
Speaker 1: perhaps there is something to that. But when we can
Speaker 1: say yes to the people in our lives, it strengthens
Speaker 1: those relationships in a way that little else can. I
Speaker 1: fundamentally believe that people are a good use of time,
Speaker 1: and the good news is that a few minutes invested
Speaker 1: in generosity is often paid back in profound ways. I
Speaker 1: love to get emails from listeners and readers, and I
Speaker 1: respond to almost all of it. As a result of
Speaker 1: spending just a few minutes on those emails here and there,
Speaker 1: I have made some great friends and professional acquaintances over
Speaker 1: the years because of those connections. Talk about a huge payback.
Speaker 1: Many of us have had the experience of encouraging a
Speaker 1: young person in our field. That young person then goes
Speaker 1: on to become a total rock star and a font
Speaker 1: of all sorts of opportunities. Again, that is a big
Speaker 1: payback for what was probably not a huge investment of time. Now,
Speaker 1: generosity doesn't need to be a blank check, and I
Speaker 1: am sure that sometimes generosity is abused. But even if
Speaker 1: being generous with time sometimes feels like a waste of time,
Speaker 1: the truth is that we waste time on all kinds
Speaker 1: of things. As it is. I doubt that listening to
Speaker 1: a neighbor's story is a much worse use of time
Speaker 1: than scrolling around online for a few minutes. The former
Speaker 1: can spread some serious joy. Love is patient and we
Speaker 1: all need more love in the world. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our tak Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else.
Speaker 2: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
Speaker 2: Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: That's b E the number four then Breakfast pod. You
Speaker 1: can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts
Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com. That before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, should I look
Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app.
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