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 a phrase I repeat to myself all the time.
Speaker 1: Plan it in, do it anyway. I find I make
Speaker 1: much better use of my time when I think beyond
Speaker 1: how I feel right now, A better question when I
Speaker 1: think about how I spend my time looking back? Will
Speaker 1: I be happy I did this? Will I be happy
Speaker 1: with this memory? If so, my experiencing self just needs
Speaker 1: to get on board. That phrase experiencing self comes from
Speaker 1: psychologist Daniel Kanneman's work. This Nobel Prize winning researcher noted
Speaker 1: that the self really has multiple identities. There's what we're
Speaker 1: going through right at this instant, the moment when you're
Speaker 1: listening to me tell you about this topic. But much
Speaker 1: of our internal lives actually involve the remembering self, the
Speaker 1: keeper of our memories. You think back to your life
Speaker 1: and the story of what brought you to this moment.
Speaker 1: I actually like to think about this in terms of
Speaker 1: three selves, the experiencing self and the remembering self, but
Speaker 1: also the anticipating self. Another big chunk of our interior
Speaker 1: monologues consists of our plans, hopes, and anxieties about the future.
Speaker 1: You might be commuting on a rainy day, but you're
Speaker 1: thinking about that sunny beach vacation you have planned for August.
Speaker 1: Our brains have an amazing ability to time travel backwards
Speaker 1: and forwards. Here's why this matters as we think about
Speaker 1: how we spend our time. The present is actually an
Speaker 1: incredibly ephemeral moment. In his book The Principles of Psychology,
Speaker 1: William James writes, where is it this present? It has
Speaker 1: melted in our grasp, fled ere, We could touch it,
Speaker 1: gone in the instant of becoming. Back in William James's day,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of strange experimental inquiry into the
Speaker 1: exact length of the present. Our senses can't distinguish between
Speaker 1: things that happen less than about a half second apart,
Speaker 1: and working memory is a maximum of about twelve seconds.
Speaker 1: So the length of the present must be somewhere in there,
Speaker 1: or at least that's what I gather from reading about
Speaker 1: these various experiments. So the present is fleeting. Almost all
Speaker 1: of life is lived by the anticipating and remembering selves.
Speaker 1: We can anticipate for years, we can remember for decades
Speaker 1: The challenge is that the present, the moment occupied by
Speaker 1: the experiencing self, has a disproportionate effect on our actions,
Speaker 1: and frankly, the experiencing self is a little bit lazy.
Speaker 1: The remembering self will be thrilled to have gone on
Speaker 1: that early morning trail run so she can see the
Speaker 1: gorgeous sun rise over that nearby lake. The experiencing self, well,
Speaker 1: she's comfortable in bed, hitting snooze until the sun is
Speaker 1: high in the sky. The anticipating self thought it would
Speaker 1: be fun to go to an art museum on a
Speaker 1: Friday night when admission is free and there's a bar
Speaker 1: and music, and the remembering self will fondly recall the
Speaker 1: masterpieces and chatting with new friends in line for a cocktail.
Speaker 1: But the experiencing self is tired after work. The experiencing
Speaker 1: self is the one who will have to brave the
Speaker 1: cold and the rain and the Friday night traffic. The
Speaker 1: experiencing self is not happy about this split of labor,
Speaker 1: so she rebels. She ignores what the anticipating and remembering
Speaker 1: self want, and justifies this tantrum by pointing out that
Speaker 1: the museum will still be there next Friday, so she's
Speaker 1: just going to watch Netflix instead, immediate pleasure wins out
Speaker 1: over the more effortful sort. One of the best ways
Speaker 1: I've heard this phenomenon described is in philosopher Robert Gruden's
Speaker 1: book Time and the Art of Living. He says, we
Speaker 1: pamper the present like a spoiled child. We indulge its
Speaker 1: whim to scroll through Instagram instead of living a life
Speaker 1: worth taking pictures about. So how do we keep the
Speaker 1: experiencing selfs tyranny in check? It isn't easy. People are
Speaker 1: bad at considering their future selves in general, which is
Speaker 1: why so few people invest properly for retirement. But that's
Speaker 1: where my mantra comes in. Whenever I find myself listening
Speaker 1: too much to the experiencing self, I repeat my phrase,
Speaker 1: plan it in do it anyway. If my anticipating self
Speaker 1: really wanted to do something, my remembering self will probably
Speaker 1: be glad that I did it. I may be tired,
Speaker 1: but guess what, I'll always be tired, and we draw
Speaker 1: energy from meaningful things. Furthermore, all time passes, whether I
Speaker 1: do anything today or not. Eventually today will be gone,
Speaker 1: Tomorrow will be gone too. Time can be filled with
Speaker 1: what amounts to nothing, or it can be filled with
Speaker 1: something more meaningful. So if you'd like to have time
Speaker 1: feel richer and more meaningful, plan in exciting things the
Speaker 1: many adventures we've talked about in previous episodes, and some
Speaker 1: bigger adventures too. And then when you get to the
Speaker 1: moment and you are wavering because your couch seems inviting,
Speaker 1: repeat this phrase. Plan it in. Do it anyway. Your
Speaker 1: remembering self will thank you. In fact, if you want
Speaker 1: to encourage this mindset in the future, take a moment
Speaker 1: right now to thank your past experiencing self for having
Speaker 1: done something difficult that you can now smile upon. I
Speaker 1: just spent some time looking through photos I took a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago of my kids at a botanical garden.
Speaker 1: They did not want to turn off their video games
Speaker 1: and get in the car. My experiencing self did not
Speaker 1: enjoy that battle. But all that is in the past. Now.
Speaker 1: What is left are these images of sunshine and flowers
Speaker 1: and children in a moment of childhood that will be
Speaker 1: gone before I know it. So what will you decide
Speaker 1: to do anyway today? Feel free to let me know
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura, thanks for listening and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the
Speaker 1: number four then Breakfast pod. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com
Speaker 1: that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch.
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