You can always quit tomorrow

Try sticking with your new habit for one more day

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 can always quit tomorrow. If there
is a new commitment, goal, or habit that you thought

(00:26):
you wanted to pursue but now feel inclined to abandon,
consider staying with it one more day. You can always
quit tomorrow, but if you stick with it today, you
might find you can stick with it for the long haul.

(00:48):
When a habit, routine, or commitment is fairly new, it
can feel hard to keep going. You haven't figured out
all the logistics, you can't necessarily get in the flow.
Maybe you wanted to work out in the mornings, but
every morning it is a struggle to get out of bed,
and it's a struggle to breathe ten minutes into your

(01:09):
spin class. Or maybe you wanted to read Shakespeare every
day and get through all his plays by the end
of the year, But by the time the kids are
in bed and the dishes are done, all you want
to do is veg on the couch with your partner.
In moments like these, when your new commitment seems hard,

(01:32):
you may be tempted to give up. After all, you
haven't been going that long anyway, Who cares if you
abandon a routine that isn't actually established. But maybe you
can hang on one more day. Tomorrow you can curl
up on the couch and watch Netflix if you really

(01:53):
want to. But tonight you have a date with William Shakespeare.
You are not going to stand him up. By delaying
quitting by one day. You give yourself one more chance
to figure out how to make your new commitment work.
You develop a little more momentum. Maybe you will decide

(02:15):
to quit the next day, But maybe tomorrow you will
decide to defer the decision to quit for another day again,
And some days you won't even consider quitting. After more
and more practice, you may begin to feel like your
new habit, or your goal pursuit isn't that hard. Now,

(02:36):
it is possible that you will eventually decide to quit
or modify the goal. Basically, everything does end in time.
But it is also possible that you will fulfill the
commitment one more time, day after day, until you have
forgotten about your desire to quit. You will have built

(02:58):
the strategies and momentum to sustain your habit for the
long term. I will admit that I sometimes feel like
quitting while building new habits. I just got through a
busy weekend and it was hard to carve out a
few minutes to read my ten pages of Jane Austen.

(03:19):
One day. In particular, I couldn't get to it until nighttime,
even though this is technically supposed to be part of
my morning routine, and alas the first page I was
reading wasn't one of Austin's best, I started bargaining with myself,
maybe just one page or two that keeps the street

(03:41):
going at least, right, and it would. But after reading
two or three pages, I figured, well, this is only
going to take me a few more minutes. I may
as well keep reading. I can just read today and
maybe tomorrow will be better. And you know what it was,
and so I am still going with the habit. You

(04:03):
can always quit tomorrow, and if you keep thinking that,
you'll get through a lot of tomorrow's and maybe not
quit anytime soon after all. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

(04:24):
our time. Hey, everybody, 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

(04:46):
Breakfast pod. You can also shoot me an email at
Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast
is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit

(05:10):
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.