Second Cup: Avoid pendulum swings

Moderation is better than over-correction

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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 avoid pendulum swings. Consistency tends to lead
to better outcomes than going to extremes, and it also

(00:26):
tends to be less stressful. So when something in your
life feels out of whack, it can be easy to overcorrect.
If you've had a really busy social season, you may
be inclined to turn down all social plans for the
next few weeks. If you are disciplined in January about

(00:46):
saving money, you may wind up buying everything under the
sun in February, And if you put in a week
of really long days, you may find yourself phoning it
in the next week. The problem is that these over
corrections are seldom the right solutions either. Having zero social

(01:06):
plans is the recipe for heading into work Monday feeling
like the weekend never happened, which is depressing, so you
overschedule the next weekend and feel out of sorts again.
Saving money through deprivation doesn't help if you then spend
everything you saved, and if you slack at work, you

(01:28):
might need to put in long days the next week
in order to get caught up. Pendulum swings like these
can leave you feeling like you are never in the
right place, even if your average social events per week,
or spending per month, or sweets per day, or hours
per week worked, or any other metric seems to be

(01:48):
exactly what you want. If you are not within the
range of what's best for you during shorter periods, you
may end up feeling frazzled. I have certainly seen that
with sleep. Even during the worst of the baby years,
my time logs showed that I averaged seven point four
hours of sleep per day over any longer stretch of time.

(02:12):
But my time logs also show some awful days of
being up three times in the night, or finally getting
a baby down at one am, only to be up
at five point thirty to catch a plane. I'd nap
or crash other places in order to hit the average,
but it wasn't a lot of fun with babies who

(02:33):
don't sleep well. This is what it is. These days,
my kids are older and I can be more consistent
with daily sleep totals. I am still averaging seven point
four hours per day, but it feels entirely different than
those pendulum swings. When pendulum swings can be avoided, as

(02:55):
with most other metrics that don't involve nursing babies, life
will feel a lot less chaotic. So with any metric
that matters to you. Spending exercise, hours worked, social plans,
figure out what feels sustainable long term. Can you really

(03:16):
bill forty hours per week or is thirty six hours
more sustainable? Can you actually run twenty eight miles per
week or is twenty more realistic given your other commitments?
Will you feel overscheduled if you go out four nights
a week or disconnected if you're home for seven nights
a week. Is two hundred dollars per week doable for

(03:39):
groceries week to week? Or will spending two hundred dollars
on groceries this week lead you to ring up a
hefty four hundred dollars bill next week. In any aspect
of your life where you're feeling off kilter, pay attention
to the actual time and money you spend week to
week and figure out the amount that feels about right.

(04:02):
Then aim to get pretty close to that amount consistently.
If you do, you will be on track to meet
your long term goals and you'll also avoid the stress
and disorder that can come from pendulum swings. Not every
week will be right at the ideal, of course, but

(04:23):
you'll know to return to it as soon as you can.
For instance, if you put in a really long week
at work, perhaps you take a camp half day the
next Monday morning, but then work at a normal pace
the rest of the time. If you overindulge on a
trip to New Orleans, you don't need to eat salad
every meal for the next month. Just go back to

(04:46):
your usual moderate habits. It will all be fine in
the meantime. This is Laura, Thanks for listening, and here's
to making the most of our time. Yes, hey, everybody,

(05:07):
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 Before Breakfast Pod.
That's b E the number four then Breakfast pod. You
can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts
at iHeartMedia dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out

(05:30):
with all the letters. Thanks so much, should I look
forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
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