Make your own birthday fun

Take the initiative to celebrate the special days in your life

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to make your own birthday fun, or your
own fun for any other special day in your life.

(00:25):
It is fun to celebrate, but it is also not
reasonable to assume that anyone else is going to take
this on for you. By taking the initiative, you increase
the chances of enjoying your special day. This episode is
first airing near my birthday. Now. When I was little,

(00:47):
I wasn't so fond of having a December birthday, as
it meant all my gift receiving occasions were clustered into
one small chunk of the calendar. However, as an adult,
I have appreciated that the world is already festive in December.
There are lots of parties and special events, and I

(01:09):
can simply piggyback on many of those to feel celebratory
this time of year. This might be more challenging if
your birthday happens in a party dead zone, like I
don't know, early March. However, whatever time of year we
are looking at, you can think about what you might
find enjoyable and plan that in Simply remind yourself about

(01:33):
three to four weeks ahead of time that your birthday
is coming up. Then think about what adventures or experiences
you would enjoy going out to eat, going to a show.
Do you have a favorite place you like to visit,
like a science museum or a special store. Do you
have people you would like to visit. See if you

(01:55):
can plan things in for the days around your birthday.
You are setting this up three to four weeks ahead
of time. I am guessing that you can make it happen.
Maybe you go out to lunch with colleagues on the
day before your birthday and meet a few friends for
happy Hour on your birthday itself. Maybe you and your

(02:16):
spouse go out that weekend to celebrate, and during one
of the days on that weekend you spend two hours
at your museum or the shop, or whatever your special
place is. You would look forward to that for quite
a while and would be excited to think, while you
were out to lunch with colleagues that you had even

(02:37):
more celebrating coming up over the next few days. Now.
I know a lot of people don't do this. Some
people don't like to celebrate their birthdays, But I think.
Another common reason is that people don't think to plan
things in for themselves. We have this idea, maybe stemming
from childhood when our parents planned our birthday parties, that

(03:01):
other people in our lives should be coming up with ideas,
and you know what, maybe they will, but everyone is busy.
If you would like something to happen, take charge of
the planning yourself. Would you find it weird if a
colleague ask to arrange a birthday lunch next week for herself,

(03:24):
you'd probably be excited for her, and guess what, everyone
will feel the same for you. This is true for
anything else special you would like to celebrate as well.
Maybe your organization will celebrate that you have been there
for five years, but maybe not if you're happy about it,

(03:44):
throw your own little happy hour to celebrate. If you've
had some other milestone, like winning an award, invite a
few friends to get together to toast it. We have
the power to put things into our lives that we
will be happy to have had happen. Perhaps in our
fantasy lives, fun wouldn't require any planning and effort. But

(04:09):
the net result of waiting for festive things to happen
is that they probably won't. When you make your own fun,
the fun will happen and that is a much better outcome.
In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and

(04:31):
here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

(04:55):
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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