Describe a typical Tuesday
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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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 that life is lived in ordinary days. If you are considering any big changes, think about what your life would look like on an ordinary Tuesday. You might also reflect on what your typical Tuesday looks like now. If you don't like what you see, consider what you would like an ordinary Tuesday to look like instead. Today's tip comes from Ira Bedzo, an ethicist and the executive director of the Emory Purpose Project. In an article for Psychology Today, he described what he calls flourishing chats, conversations he has with people about their life and work. As part of these flourishing chats, when he's talking with someone about a career path they are considering, he says he asks, what would your ordinary Tuesday look like at this job?
Not what their job title would be, not their earnings, not their clout. What would they actually be doing on an ordinary workday? How would they spend their time? What tasks would they perform? Who would they interact with?
What is the episode’s core message about ordinary Tuesdays?
What physical space would they be in? What would energize them? What might deplete them? How would they feel when they left work at the end of the day? Often, he says, the conversation goes silent at this point. The person hadn't thought about what a He explains that people often revert to their old habits of choosing the path that looks most successful from the outside, rather than one they can get excited about actually living day to day. But success from the outside may matter less for happiness than how you live your life. When you focus on success from the outside, you may neglect to consider if you actually like how you spend your days. Considering how you actually spend your time prompts you, as Bedzo puts it, to stop seeing success as something you possess and to start seeing it as something you practice.
I like this distinction between possessing success versus practicing success. Whether you are an undergrad looking for your first job or a middle-aged professional feeling dissatisfied and trying to figure out how to recalibrate, What your ordinary Tuesday would look like is an important question. I think it could be wise to journal about what a typical Tuesday is like for you now. You can track your time, of course, or you can just take notes. What do you actually do? Who do you interact with? Where do you spend your time? What is asked of you?
Why should you ask “What would an ordinary Tuesday look like?” when considering big life changes?
What gives you joy and energy? What saps your energy? And fundamentally, do you like your typical Tuesday? Does it feel aligned with what you care about? If you don't love your typical Tuesdays as they are now, write about your dream day. What would an ideal, ordinary day look like? In other words, this isn't a vacation day when you're off working in Hawaii. Your toddler might still have a meltdown in the morning. But on an ordinary day of real life, when your life is in alignment with your values, how would you spend your time? Who would you be with? What would you be doing? When you think about your ideal Tuesday, you may get some ideas for how you can move your Tuesdays closer to what you envision.
I'll note that my book, Tranquility by Tuesday, is all about little practices that can make the experience of an average Tuesday much better. In any case, maybe this exercise points you to a new career path. Or maybe it nudges you to spend a little more time on your favorite parts of your current job. Maybe your work itself is great, but you realize you would be happier if remote work meant working at a local coffee shop or co-working space rather than in your dreary basement. Or maybe you realize work is only a limited number of hours on Tuesdays, and you have time outside of work for fun things if you want.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:54
2
What is the episode’s core message about ordinary Tuesdays?
1:54–3:39
3
Why should you ask “What would an ordinary Tuesday look like?” when considering big life changes?
3:39–7:29
4
Which specific questions does Ira Bedzo suggest asking about a typical workday?
7:29–7:42