Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of my Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is that even long journeys have an end.
Speaker 1: When you make a reasonable plan and stick with the plan,
Speaker 1: there is a good chance that you will finish. Time
Speaker 1: passes one way or another, so the length of the
Speaker 1: journey doesn't need to intimidate you at the start. Over
Speaker 1: the past year, I embarked on a number of long projects.
Speaker 1: I committed to reading all three hundred sixty some chapters
Speaker 1: of War and Peace at a rate of one chapter
Speaker 1: per day. My family embarked on a total renovation of
Speaker 1: a historic house that we purchased. I undertook an eleven
Speaker 1: week time perception and satisfaction study with hundreds of participants,
Speaker 1: and then wrote up the results for a book that
Speaker 1: will be based on that study. All of these things
Speaker 1: got going in January. All of these things were roughly
Speaker 1: year long undertakings. The year is now ending, and all
Speaker 1: of them are nearing completion. On some level. This isn't surprising.
Speaker 1: Time keeps passing, so something that starts in January and
Speaker 1: takes a year will in fact end in December, And
Speaker 1: yet it feels a little miraculous, all the same that
Speaker 1: a long march does in fact come closer to completion
Speaker 1: with every step. If you read roughly four pages a
Speaker 1: day in a page book, then once you are north
Speaker 1: of three days, the end will be in sight. When
Speaker 1: there is a construction schedule with space for delays, and
Speaker 1: it is observed the countertops will go in during November
Speaker 1: and the carpet in December. The reason this matters is
Speaker 1: that many long journeys look intimidating at the outset. We
Speaker 1: have all heard the phrase that a journey of a
Speaker 1: thousand miles starts with a single step. But it's not
Speaker 1: actually that first step that's the issue. That first step
Speaker 1: we can take. We have plenty of motivation. First step one.
Speaker 1: It's knowing that there will be two million steps in
Speaker 1: that one tho mile journey, and that you will have
Speaker 1: to take these three hundred thousand step and the one
Speaker 1: million two thousand steps and so forth. That realization can
Speaker 1: make you want to just lie down. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Most of us walk at least five thousand steps or
Speaker 1: so a day. Anyway, walking a thousand miles over the
Speaker 1: course of a year would mean taking just a few
Speaker 1: extra steps with a purpose. If there was a plan
Speaker 1: with a larger project broken into smaller steps, with buffers
Speaker 1: and a system for accountability, no one day would be overwhelming. Indeed,
Speaker 1: most days would feel quite doable. All you have to
Speaker 1: do is just keep going, so it is with any
Speaker 1: big project. Time will pass anyway. If you spend your
Speaker 1: time in purposeful ways, with structured progress toward your goals,
Speaker 1: then most likely you will reach your destination. Even long
Speaker 1: journeys have ends. That fifteen hour Plaine flight, eventually fifteen
Speaker 1: hours will be over. You will be at your destination.
Speaker 1: And likewise, I am winding into those last one pages
Speaker 1: of war and Peace and hiring the movers and choosing
Speaker 1: book covers. Since these are things I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: It would have been a mistake last January to decide
Speaker 1: not to do them because they would take a long time.
Speaker 1: The time would eventually be in the past one way
Speaker 1: or the other. Far better to end where you wish
Speaker 1: to be than not. 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 hear 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
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