Second Cup: Go see someone

A quick visit can have a big happiness payoff.

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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 go see someone often. It is not
that challenging to take a short trip to see a

(00:25):
friend or relative. Doing so can make life feel a
lot more fulfilling, So, especially as life gets busy, it
can be easy to default to whatever leisure activities are
right in front of us. We spend a Saturday shuttling
family members places or buying groceries and watching TV, and

(00:49):
there's nothing wrong with any of these things. But many
people claim they would love to spend more time with
friends or extended family members, and they just feel too
busy to do so. This is particularly true when many
friends and family members don't live in the same town.

(01:10):
But if someone lives within two hours of you by
car or by train, it would be quite possible to
visit for a few hours on the weekend without it
becoming a huge ordeal. If you live in one of
the markets that is serviced by a low cost airline,
you might even be able to fly to see someone.

(01:31):
You could stay overnight, but you might not even have to.
I have been thinking of this lately because I have
been taking a lot of speaking trips. Often for these,
I can fly in and out relatively quickly. I live
in the Philadelphia area, and I have been able to
fly in and out in one day to all sorts

(01:54):
of places, including Florida, Saint Louis, Chicago, Nashville, even Minneapolis.
Add in one night's stay somewhere, and I've been able
to get as far afield as Phoenix and places like that.
When I was flying down to Florida to visit someone
not that long ago, I found that Frontier Airlines was

(02:16):
offering tickets for as low as nineteen dollars. Now, since
I needed to bring a bag, I wound up paying more.
But if you were just going down for a few hours,
it could wind up being a fairly inexpensive day. In
early April, I took some off peak trains in and
out of New York and was able to see friends

(02:36):
there for not a whole lot of time and money.
Driving opens up possibilities too. If you know people who
live two hours away or so, that is very doable
to go for an early dinner on a weekend day
and come home afterwards. No need to pack bags. Of course,

(02:58):
it is always easier not to spend time in transit.
But the truth is that you will do something on
the weekend. If you spend a little bit of time
thinking about it and reach out to people you know
and want to see, it is quite possible that you
will be able to fit in something a little more
interesting than grocery shopping. Now, I know that everyone is

(03:22):
working hard, and everyone is working long. Often we get
to the weekend and we just want to relax. So
know that I am not talking about flying to Florida
every weekend. But what if you aim to go visit
someone every four to six weeks or so. That leaves
lots of weekends for local pursuits or relaxing, But you

(03:46):
would also be able to visit friends eight to thirteen
times over the course of the year. That is a
fair amount. It might help to think of people in
your life who you genuinely like but don't see as
often as you would want to, who lives relatively nearby.

(04:06):
You can look at your calendar for the next few
months and engineer a weekend day to be fairly free.
Reach out and let people know you would like to
come see them. People often won't invite someone who lives
far away, as they assume they won't be able to come.
But if you let it be known that you will come,
you can certainly come up with a good reason offer

(04:29):
to pick up something to eat on the way there.
But if you are willing to travel, people will often
be quite open to just having you. The good news
is that if you go visit a far flung friend
over the weekend, you won't get to Monday and think
where did the weekend go? You will have truly enjoyed
yourself and created some great memories. And it's only a day.

(04:56):
My guess is that you will still get to the
grocery shopping and you will feel more rejuvenated than if
you just sat around trying to do nothing. So why
not make a few plans. I'd love to hear how
it goes. You can reach me at Laura at Laura
vandercam dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks

(05:21):
for listening, and here's to making the most of our times.
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. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.

(05:50):
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