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 to focus your leisure time. If you have
Speaker 1: something you like to do for fun, you will find
Speaker 1: life more satisfying if you go deep, committing enough time
Speaker 1: and resources to make your fun as meaningful as possible.
Speaker 1: Today's tip, like some others this week, comes from my
Speaker 1: book One hundred sixty eight Hours. That book was first
Speaker 1: published in late May of twenty ten, which means that
Speaker 1: it is fifteen years old this month. A lot has
Speaker 1: changed in the world since then, but we do, in
Speaker 1: fact still have one hundred sixty eight hours in a week,
Speaker 1: and so I am revisiting some of the tips in
Speaker 1: that book that I think can still be helpful. One
Speaker 1: of these is to focus your leisure time. In one
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty eight Hours, I tell the tale of
Speaker 1: a man with a corporate job who got into writing
Speaker 1: country music. He enjoyed it, but rather than just dabbling
Speaker 1: it a bit here and there, he decided to commit
Speaker 1: the time to really get into it. He took voice lessons,
Speaker 1: he hired a music producer to help him hone his
Speaker 1: ideas into more singable songs, and then he recorded them
Speaker 1: and sold his album online, with some tracks getting a
Speaker 1: bit of local airplay. Now, he was not exactly going
Speaker 1: to quit his job to attempt to become the next
Speaker 1: George Strait, but having a real project of creating a
Speaker 1: not terrible country music album gave his leisure time more
Speaker 1: direction and therefore made it more meaning. This is certainly
Speaker 1: something I have tried to do over the last few years.
Speaker 1: I love to sing, but I know that if I
Speaker 1: just tell myself I'm going to sing when I can,
Speaker 1: it probably won't happen. So instead, I now sing in
Speaker 1: two choirs. The weekly rehearsals and performances mean I learn
Speaker 1: a lot of new works and I improve more swiftly
Speaker 1: than I would otherwise. Plus it's really fun to be
Speaker 1: part of a musical community, two musical communities. It gives
Speaker 1: my leisure time more focus. As my kids get a
Speaker 1: little older and I start to have more space in
Speaker 1: my life and in my schedule, I am taking that
Speaker 1: approach to other hobbies too. I love miniatures, so now
Speaker 1: I am creating miniature scenes in my office. I signed
Speaker 1: up for a webinar on the Thorn Rooms, and I
Speaker 1: have a date on my calendar to attend the Philadelphia
Speaker 1: Miniature Show in the fall. I've also talked to some
Speaker 1: people in the field to get the names of artisans
Speaker 1: to follow and some of the good places to shop.
Speaker 1: I want to get really into this. What about you?
Speaker 1: How could you focus your leisure time going all in
Speaker 1: to make this time more meaningful. You could decide to
Speaker 1: just play an instrument here and there, but my guess
Speaker 1: is that you will have more fun joining or starting
Speaker 1: a string quartette with some other musicians, or playing in
Speaker 1: the pit for a local musical theater troupe. You could
Speaker 1: decide to do some watercolor work at night when you can,
Speaker 1: or you could sign up for classes at a local
Speaker 1: arts studio, plus go to the open studio hours every weekend,
Speaker 1: and commit to exhibiting a few works at a student
Speaker 1: show in a few months. My guess is you will
Speaker 1: do more painting in the latter case, and you will
Speaker 1: probably have more fun too. If you have listened to
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast for a while, you have heard me say
Speaker 1: over and over again that leisure time is too precious
Speaker 1: to be totally leisurely about leisure. This time deserves to
Speaker 1: be taken seriously, but beyond that, When you go all
Speaker 1: in and commit enough time and resources to make a
Speaker 1: hobby meaningful, you change your story. We often tell ourselves
Speaker 1: that we have no time. But if you are going
Speaker 1: to a quilting bee twice a week, traveling around to
Speaker 1: quilting shows, and exhibiting your own work at a local
Speaker 1: community center too, well, you can't be starved for time
Speaker 1: because you are doing all these things, and that can
Speaker 1: motivate you to take a more expansive attitude toward time.
Speaker 1: In general, you have time to do big and important
Speaker 1: things when we are intentional. That is the message we
Speaker 1: send ourselves in the meantime. This is Laura, Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.