Create a List of 100 Dreams

What would you like to spend more time doing? Learn about the most fun list you’ll ever make.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to make a list of a hundred dreams.
When it comes to time management, a lot of people
think it's all about saving bits of time here and there,
and so the internet is full of these kinds of tips.
I will confess that I read these tips like everybody else,

(00:24):
hoping I'm going to find hours in the day that
I didn't know existed. But then it's always stuff like
clean the shower while you're in it. Or one of
my favorites, which somebody said in all seriousness, is that
if you send a lot of emails where the answers okay,
you should just type kay instead of okay, because I
know the only thing keeping me from greatness is typing

(00:46):
the letter oh and all my emails. Right, If you
think about it, it's kind of silly. We don't build
the lives we want by saving time. We build the
lives we want, and then time saves itself. I think
it's so much more effective to think about what we
want to spend more time doing. What great things would

(01:07):
we like to put into our lives. The best way
to answer that question is to make a list many
years ago, career coach Caroline Sneeze O Levine shared an
exercise with me that she calls the list of a
hundred dreams. This is a completely unedited list of anything
you want to do or have in life. It can
be travel goals or hobbies, or things you'd like to

(01:29):
do with your family, maybe professional goals too. You can
think of it as like a bucket list, but most
people's bucket lists don't have a hundred items on there.
It's actually really hard to get to a hundred. The
first third is pretty easy because most people want to
travel more, so they put the thirty three countries they
want to visit. After that it gets more complicated. Random

(01:51):
items have put on my lists over the years have
included visiting the Greek Islands, seeing Perth, Australia, building and
furnishing a doll house with my daughter, writing a collection
of sonnets, getting a good rain jacket, and singing in
a performance of Box B Minor Mass. You'll probably have
to come back to this list several times. Don't second

(02:11):
guess your answers. You're not actually holding yourself to any
of this, and you don't have to show it to
anyone either. Though you can if you want. It's just
fun to think about things you want to spend more
time doing. You'll learn more about yourself and about what
makes you feel excited and energized. Because here's the thing,
I promise, pretty much everybody has some discretionary time in

(02:34):
their lives. Unfortunately, if you're building a career and raising
a family, this free time seldom comes gift wrapped and obvious.
It doesn't always look like a day at the spa. Instead,
it appears as an hour after the kids go to bed,
or when you're waiting for the car pool to bring
them home from soccer practice, or maybe it's a half

(02:55):
day on the weekend when the groceries are bought and
this with meat is done. Because we think we don't
have free time, we don't ask what we'd like to
do with it. So when free time does appear, we
spend it in the most effortless way as possible, scrolling
around online watching TV, or puttering around the house doing
housework that doesn't really need to be done. With a

(03:17):
list of a hundred dreams, though, you get ideas. If
I've got an open hour, I can write a draft
of a sonnet on a weekend afternoon, I could find
a doll furniture store and go visit. Then this time
will feel more rejuvenating then if I lose it to
stuff I don't care about. So at some point today,
start making your list of a hundred dreams. Maybe you

(03:40):
can get to twenty five over your lunch break, maybe
you can add fifteen more tonight, or maybe you'll surprise
me and get all the way to a hundred. I'd
love to hear how far you get. I'd love to
hear what you put on there too. Feel free to
send me your lists at Before Breakfast podcast at i
heeart media dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura.

(04:01):
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at

(04:24):
Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four then breakfast
p o D. You can also shoot me an email
at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com
That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Thanks so much. I look forward to staying in touch.