Second Cup: You have time to be human

If a few minutes would make you feel a lot better, take them

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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 that you have time to be human. There
is no real point in pretending you are a machine.

(00:26):
If taking a few minutes for something would make you
feel a lot, better, take them. So. I know we
are all busy these days, and I talk with many
people who feel like they go, go go from dawn
until night. Some of this might be circumstanced and some

(00:46):
might be self imposed. But if you are feeling particularly frenzied,
it might help to remind yourself that most small things
that make us feel human don't actually take that much time.
For instance, if you want to eat breakfast, you probably

(01:07):
have time to eat breakfast. The food industry has spent
a lot of time and effort convincing us that we
have to eat bars or shakes on the go or something,
but I'm not really sure that's true. I can attest
that I fry myself eggs most mornings, and it might
take all of two more minutes than putting a pop

(01:28):
tart in the toaster. Likewise, if you do not wish
to eat at your desk, then you can probably stop
working for a few minutes to eat lunch, go outside,
or at least go find a table or grab a
work friend and eat together. I'd add that asking someone

(01:49):
how they are doing and then listening to their answer
generally doesn't take that much time. Not true. Sometimes people
go on for a while, but even if they do it,
the rare person who is going to take more than
five minutes. Truly, five minutes is actually a really long
time to go on about your weekend. Most people won't

(02:10):
do that in a casual conversation, and so it is
okay to stop and talk to someone and not look
at your phone while you are doing so. You have
time to be a good human. Or there's this one.
Maybe you've got back to back meetings and you find
yourself racing between them. Guess what, you have time to

(02:33):
be human in a biological sense. If you need to
grab a snack or a drink of water or go
to the restroom, you can. You will be less than
five minutes late, and I'm guessing you will be a
lot more comfortable. Now. None of this is an excuse
for not doing things in a timely manner. And if

(02:56):
you are always running late to everything. It might be
worth looking to why that is and maybe building in
more time for transitions. Sometimes things truly do have to
happen quickly. If stopping at the bathroom means you miss
your flight, well maybe you just wait and go on
the plane. But I suspect that for a lot of

(03:18):
people listening to this, your general daily schedule might have
a bit more given it than you think it does.
So if a few minutes would make you feel like
a human, go for it. You have time to be human,
because well you are one. In the meantime, this is Laura.

(03:43):
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, you can reach me at
Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a

(04:10):
production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
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your favorite shows.