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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeart Radio.
Good morning.
This is Laura.
Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to make your own birthday fun or your own fun for any other special day in your life.
It is fun to celebrate, but it is also not reasonable to assume that anyone else is going to take this on for you.
By taking the initiative, you increase the chances of enjoying your special day.
This episode is first airing near my birthday.
And when I was little I wasn't so fond of having a December birthday, as it meant all my gift-receiving occasions were clustered into one small chunk of the calendar.
However, as an adult, I have appreciated that the world is already festive in December.
There are lots of parties and special events and I can simply piggyback on many of those to feel celebratory this time of year.
This might be more challenging if your birthday happens in a party dead zone like, I don't know, early March.
However, whatever time of year we are looking at, you can think about what you might find enjoyable and plan that in
Simply remind yourself about three to four weeks ahead of time that your birthday is coming up.
Then think about what adventures or experiences you would enjoy.
Going out to eat?
Going to a show?
Do you have a favorite place you like to visit, like a science museum or a special store?
Do you have people you would like to visit?
See if you can plan things in for the days around your birthday.
If you are setting this up three to four weeks ahead of time, I am guessing that you can make it happen.
Maybe you go out to lunch with colleagues on the day before your birthday and meet a few friends for happy hour on your birthday itself.
Maybe you and your spouse go out that weekend to celebrate.
And during one of the days on that weekend you spend two hours at your museum or the shop or whatever your special place is.
You would look forward to that for quite a while and would be excited to think, while you were out to lunch with colleagues, that you had even more celebrating coming up over the next few days.
Now, I know a lot of people don't do this.
Some people don't like to celebrate their birthdays.
But I think another common reason is that people don't think to plan things in for themselves.
We have this idea maybe stemming from childhood, when our parents planned our birthday parties that other people in our lives should be coming up with ideas.
And you know what?
Maybe they will.
But everyone is busy.
If you would like something to happen, take charge of the planning yourself.
Would you find it weird if a colleague asked to arrange a birthday lunch next week for herself?
You'd probably be excited for her.
And guess what?
Everyone will feel the same for you.
This is true for anything else special you would like to celebrate as well.
Maybe your organization will celebrate that you have been there for five years, but maybe not.
If you're happy about it, throw your own little happy hour to celebrate.
If you've had some other milestone, like winning an award, invite a few friends to get together to toast it.
We have the power to put things into our lives that we will be happy to have had happen.
Perhaps in our fantasy lives, fun wouldn't require any planning and effort.
But the net result of waiting for festive things to happen is that they probably won't.
When you make your own fun, the fun will happen.
And that is a much better outcome.
In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening.
And here's to making the most...
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at laura at lauravandercam.com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeart Media.
For more podcasts from iHeart Media, please visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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None of it's going to get me pregnant.
Listen to What Happened in Nashville on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
This is an I Heart podcast.
Guaranteed human.
