Mark Twain said that if you have to eat a live frog, do it first thing in the morning so that you’ll get the worst thing of your day out of your way. The rest of your day will be much better by comparison. In his best-selling book Eat That Frog!, Brian Tracy has a corollary – if you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.
What is your frog? It’s NOT the annoying little action you’ve been putting off, like washing your car. No. It’s the most important, biggest task on your plate. The one that looks daunting, even overwhelming. Why do it first? Because it’s important. Doing the important tasks first sets the foundation for long-term, sustainable success. It also provides a psychological high, which boosts your productivity and creativity for your other tasks.
I have demonstrated that truism on this website in the recent past. My intention, my commitment to myself, was to post a blog each week, preferably on Wednesday, and no later than Thursday afternoon. I allowed myself to be distracted by lots of excuses. But that’s all they were – excuses. And the psychological lethargy that this inaction created also affected my performance on other tasks. It made it easier to procrastinate on them, too. You can think of this process as the rudder of a ship – the rudder is small, but it determines where the ship goes.
So now I’m renewing my intention to post weekly, for 2 reasons:
1. For myself – posting requires me to ruminate on a subject of interest to thought leaders. And to clarify my own thoughts sufficiently that I can create a cogent blog, one which I hope will be valuable to the readers
2. For the readers – I hope that this helps readers become more effective leaders, and to have richer, more meaningful lives. Because my passion is for EACH person to have a rich, meaningful life – to live it powerfully and boldly.
What do you think? I’d really appreciate hearing from you.
Gary Langenwalter
Willamette Valley Consultants 