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Figure out what you enjoyed in the past to have more fun now

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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 figure out what has given you joy,
are been meaningful recently, and then build more of that

(00:24):
into the coming week or month. Today's tip comes from
a New York Times article where writer Laurie Leibovich explained
that every year she reflects on what made her feel
good the previous year. If she feels stuck, she said
she looked through photos on her phone to trigger her memory.

(00:47):
Live performances, traveling, walking with friends, and running a ten
k were some of the things that enriched the last
year for her, so she wrote she was aiming to
get more of that on the calendar for this year too.
I love that approach for a couple of reasons. First
of all, she's focused on what made the previous year good.

(01:10):
So many people look ahead to a new year and
then loaded up with obligations and rules, things I won't
be doing, things I can't do. Things like that. I
like the idea of focusing on the positive, on joy, growth, connection, peace.
I also think it's wise that she is looking to
her own past for ideas on how to get those

(01:31):
positive experiences. I mean, sure, novelty is amazing, but if
you want a surefire way to find joy, you may
be more successful looking back at what actually gave you
joy recently, rather than googling things to enjoy this weekend.
Of course, New Year's planning time is long in the past,

(01:52):
as this episode is airing. But if you are like
a lot of Before Breakfast listeners, you are always thinking
about how to make your life better. Reflecting on what
has made our past good is a reasonable way to
design the future. There is no reason to wait until
next January to build in more of what you have enjoyed.

(02:15):
So if you find you have always loved going to
live theater, decide to do it more often. Maybe you
could even get season tickets to a local theater. If
hosting dinner parties always fills you with joy, why not
set a routine of hosting a dinner party every other Saturday,
or at least the first Saturday of the month. If
taking a few zumba classes with a friend last December

(02:37):
was fun for you and left you energized, try taking
a class every week. I think you could also take
the same approach in a more frequent iterative way. For
shorter timeframes like a week or a month, you could
reflect on a weekly basis about sources of joy and
growth in the previous week, maybe bundled with your weekly
planning session. If we had a meaningful visit to an

(03:01):
art exhibit on a lunch break last week, it's likely
that seeing a different exhibit this week could be meaningful too.
If you enjoyed a poetry reading last week, sign up
for the e blast from a local bookstore so you'll
hear about future readings. If your family enjoyed watching a
movie together last Friday, maybe a movie and popcorn would

(03:25):
be fun this Friday too. Pay attention to what makes
you feel good and what contributes to your growth, and
build that into next week and the week after that.
What made our past good can teach us a lot
about what would make our future good as well. In

(03:47):
the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening
to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,

(04:08):
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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