Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

Good morning.

This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast Podcast.

Today's tip is to seize opportunities for special experiences

rather than skipping them,

just because they're available anytime.

Like several episodes this week, today's tip comes from Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton's book,

Happy Money, The Science of Happier Spending.

Dunn and Norton describe a study finding that people who had lived at London for an entire

year reported having visited fewer landmarks than visitors who had been there two weeks.

If you're on vacation in London for two weeks, Big Ben is a must see.

But if you live in London, well you can visit the iconic clock tower at

any time, which ends up meaning never. Don and Norton coined the term the Big Ben problem to describe this tendency to miss out on treats that are

available anytime, even though we'd seize opportunities with a limited time frame.

I'm sure we can all identify the big bins in our own lives.

For instance, the local attractions in our

attractions in our hometown that every tourist visits, but that we haven't seen, or the natural wonders in our area that we don't even notice.

This is a shame because, well, people spend lots of time and money visiting these things.

Time and money that you personally don't have to spend.

Let 2021 be the year that you resolve that you will not succumb to the Big Ben problem.

You probably already know the big attractions in your area, but if not do a quick search.

...