Don't get ahead of yourself

Not everything needs to be figured out far in advance

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of my Heart Radio.
Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to be careful not to worry about
stuff that is too far in the future. Long time
Before Breakfast listeners know that I am a planner. I

(00:25):
think about what I'd like to do in the future
in my professional and personal life. I figure out the
steps to get there. I figure out where these steps
can go, and I think through what can go wrong
and how I can solve these problems. Now, this has
its upsides. Because I think about what can go wrong
and I make plans for dealing with these problems. The
logistics of my life tend to go reasonably well, even

(00:48):
with a lot of moving parts. However, there is a
downside to this personality. When I identify a problem, some
part of my brain keeps working at a solution should
even if the problem is far in the future and
I have no idea what day to day's circumstances might
look like. Then, if you're listening to this podcast, perhaps

(01:11):
your personality is a bit like mine. The problem is
that we can wind up putting a lot of time
and mental effort into pondering these problems and figuring out solutions. Often,
this time and mental effort would have been better devoted
to other things, like pondering new business ideas. Time I

(01:32):
spend figuring out a childcare issue in June, it's time
I'm not working on my next book proposal. So what
can we do? It's hard not to get ahead of ourselves,
but I've been doing a few practical things. First, when
my husband and I have calendar meetings to talk about
day to day logistics, we only look about two weeks
ahead for most normal stuff. We do not need to

(01:54):
figure out who is picking somebody up on a Friday
three weeks from now. This just these meetings ponderous, and
all of our schedules may be different by that point. Anyway,
I'm also trying to reframe things to look at the
amount of time the current schedule will work. Yes, something
might need to change in May, but that means that

(02:16):
nothing needs to change until May. That's a lot of
time I can do a lot in those intervening months.
Best to celebrate this continuity, which is more rare in
life than we might think. And finally, many things don't
require a universal solution. Now I might like to figure
out the best way to deal with transportation for my

(02:38):
middle schoolers early morning choir rehearsals, But there is no
solution that works for every single one In the moment.
It's usually not that big a deal to drive the
fifteen minutes around trip. If there's more than one adult
at home, the little kids don't have to come. If
there isn't, they do, so it goes. I don't need

(02:59):
to get ahead of myself. Do you have a tendency
to look far far ahead? Let me know at Before
Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com. In the meantime,
this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to

(03:23):
hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod. That's b E 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

(03:45):
with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
I Heart Radio. For more podcasts, from my heart Radio,
visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows. H