Start planning something big

Today is a great day to start planning a big project

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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 today is a great day to start
planning something big. Whether you actually do the big thing

(00:25):
or not, coming up with a concrete plan for a
big life project will likely have positive effects in your life.
In my new book, Big Time, I devote a chapter
to the idea of dreaming big Planning small. The idea
is that even very big things like listening to all

(00:47):
the works of Mozart, are doable if you break them
down into steps that are small enough to fit into
your life, and then you just keep going over a
long enough period of time. That's what I'm doing this
year to listen to all of Mozart, doing about thirty
minutes of listening each day while driving around in the car.

(01:09):
I am on track to finish by the end of
the year. I start this chapter about dreaming big and
Planning small with the wonderful story of the Dekou family
from Washington State. This mom and dad and their two
kids set a goal a few years ago to visit
all of the national parks. There are sixty three of them.

(01:32):
From Acadia to Zion. Now, the family could not easily
quit the rest of their life and drive around in
an RV for years at a time, so what they
did instead was rent out their house over the summers
and travel between the parks. Then they created detailed spreadsheets
of how to stay near the parks and visit affordably.

(01:55):
They did this over several years, and I am happy
to report that they have now been fifty seven of
sixty three, not bad at all. You might not want
to visit all the national parks or listen to all
of Mootzart, though perhaps you do. But perhaps there is
something else big in your life that you would like
to try. Maybe you never did the experience of backpacking

(02:19):
through Europe as a young person and you want to
try a middle aged person's version of it. Maybe you
want to do a long, multi stage hike or bike ride.
Maybe you want to read something big, all the works
of Dickens. Perhaps maybe you want to see a game
in all of the Major League Baseball parks. Whatever it is,

(02:39):
why not do a little planning today of how you
might undertake such a project. Today is as good a
day as any to do this. I am guessing you
have at least twenty minutes today that you could repurpose
from something else like scrolling to do some research. How

(03:00):
long would this project take or could it take? What
kind of steps would be involved? What sort of logistics
would you need to figure out? Now? You may or
may not ever do the thing. It might be cool,
or you might decide not to. But doing the research

(03:23):
and planning something big will have good effects in your life,
regardless of the ultimate outcomes. For starters, it is fun
to dream and plan about the future. I know, I
like thinking about trips I could take or other projects
that might be exciting to do. Some point, looking at
hotels in Europe is more fun than looking at most

(03:47):
content online. And even if you don't do all of
the project, you might decide to do certain parts of it.
For instance, you might decide to visit two of the
lesser known national parks that aren't too far from you,
or you might decide to go see a baseball game
in an away park and plan a weekend trip for

(04:07):
the time when the team closest to you is playing there.
Now you have a doable adventure planned that you can
look forward to over the next few weeks or months.
Today is a good day to start planning something big.
You might make the thing happen, or you might make

(04:30):
part of it happen, or you might just have some
more enjoyable leisure time today. But whatever the outcome, these
are all good things. In the meantime. This is Laura.
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

(04:51):
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

(05:14):
production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
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