The one habit that can revolutionize your time

A listener shares how tragedy led her to make time for adventure

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip comes from a listener who completely changed how
she spent her time after losing a dear friend. Listener
Robin writes that she enjoyed the List of one hundred

(00:24):
Dreams episode that aired a few months ago. This was
about creating an unedited list of anything you'd like to
spend more time doing. Robin said that she'd been creating
a similar list for the past three years, albeit with
fifty items, and she wanted to share the story of
how her list came to be. Several years ago, she writes,

(00:45):
a friend of mine was unexpectedly diagnosed with stage four cancer.
From the time she was diagnosed till we lost her
was about four months after hearing of her diagnosis. We
were sitting together talking and I asked her how she
was doing. Her response at the time and to this
day flabbergasted me. She told me she was fine. The

(01:08):
doctors had told her that if there was anything that
she hadn't done that she really wanted to do, that
she should do it immediately. She said that she had
done everything and had no regrets. Robin continues, we were
both in our forties at the time, and I couldn't
imagine being able to say this. I could imagine so

(01:29):
many more things that I hadn't done, so many more
adventures I hadn't gone on, so many more experiences that
were yet to be had. But here was my friend
telling me that she had checked off everything on her list.
Robin notes that I rationalized this away to some extent.
She was single and had no children, Her time was

(01:50):
her own. I was married, with three children, one each
in college, high school, in middle school. Our lives were different,
yet this stayed with me in a profound way. A
couple of years later, I was given a notebook by
another friend. On the cover, it says, have courage and
be kind. A few days later, there was news coverage
of an event that my deceased friend had attended every year.

(02:12):
Even though she was gone, I still found myself searching
for her distinctive winter hat in the crowd. That night,
I picked up the notebook and started to write down
everything that caught my attention, and I haven't stopped. Yes,
I only have fifty items on my list, but as
of this weekend, three years after I started. Forty three

(02:32):
of them have been done. I'm constantly adding to the
original list. Sometimes I will add something on Monday, knowing
I plan on doing it on Saturday. But that really
doesn't matter. What matters is that I am identifying much
better uses for my time and creating memories. She writes,
I am managing my time to create a better life.

(02:53):
I love Robin's story and her commitment to creating an
ongoing list of how she'd like to spend her time. Time.
What a great habit to have. We can revolutionize our
lives by asking a version of the question her friends
doctors asked her, what would we like to do that
we haven't done? The vast majority of us aren't facing

(03:15):
a life threatening diagnosis, thank goodness. But it's easy to
trudge along through life assuming will do everything later. Maybe
we do have all the time in the world, but
maybe we don't. If our time was suddenly limited, what
would we still like to cross off that list? Of course,
there needs to be a balance here. Living like there's

(03:37):
no tomorrow means a lot of people would stop saving
for retirement, they'd stop flossing, they'd stop eating their vegetables.
No one's immortal. But given that the odds favor a
fair number of tomorrow's, we're probably better off doing these things.
But like Robin, it might help to ask ourselves what
we'd need to do to get to a place where,

(03:58):
like her friend, we could say we have no regrets,
make this list, and then see what's feasible to do,
maybe sooner rather than later. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.

(04:26):
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 the number four, then Breakfast
p o D. You can also shoot me an email
at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com
that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.

(04:49):
Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio. For
more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. M