This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of IHeart Radio.

Good morning.

This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is that we tend to stick with things that are easy,

pleasant, and fit in our lives. If you are trying to stick with any project long term,

it helps to structure it to satisfy those conditions. I know that a great many people set goals and resolutions

for the new year. By the end of the year, many of these have been forgotten, or at least, abandoned.

It may be true that some people are more oriented towards sticking with random, self-imposed

goals than others. But I also think that in many cases, people abandon their projects

because they aren't structured in a way that makes success likely. I set a few long-term goals this

year, and I am happy to report that they have mostly happened.

For instance, I wanted to listen to all the works of Beethoven.

I wanted to read Anna Karinjana, and I wanted to write 52 sonnets.

Those are 14-line poems that follow a certain rhyming scheme.

Coming into December, I have indeed listened to almost all of Beethoven.

I finished Tolstoy's epic a while ago,

and I have written 48 sonnets and will hit 52 by January.

I will not credit any deep well of discipline for any of this. Anyone thinking that

should see how much time I waste scrolling on social media. But I did structure all of these projects

...