Eat the Frog First

Continuing the conversation from last Friday’s post called Get in the Driver’s Seat...Once you’ve identified what you want and you’ve brainstormed the steps you need to take, it’s time to follow through.

If you’re anything like me, this is when the procrastination brain kicks in. I have a hard time getting started because I can easily find things I want to do that are easier, like endless research, for example.

Most of the time I’m telling myself, there’s too much to do, I don’t know how to even start, and I should do this or that first. Because overall it seems hard, I feel more comfortable starting with the easiest thing. However, when the tasks get harder, that’s when I start wanting to give up.

This is why you should EAT THE FROG! This is from a famous Mark Twain quote: “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” First of all, I never want it to be my job to eat a frog. But if I had to, I’d want to just get it out of the way rather than dread it! So, this means doing the thing you least want to do right away.

A great example of this in my life was starting a business. I started with building my website. I spent weeks playing around with Wix editing my website because I really enjoy technical and creative tasks. The things I was not so comfortable doing that required the most discomfort, like the informational videos and reaching out to people, were last on my list of things to do. I wanted to put those tasks off as long as possible because I was really afraid. When it came time to do those things, no lie, I started considering giving up on my dream of starting a business. Luckily, I finally ate the frog, but it could’ve gone awry had I not done some major thought work on discomfort! That lesson is for another day...

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