Lessons from a Termite & How to Eat a Frog

Did you know that in 1 year, more damage is caused by the lowly termite than hurricanes, floods, fires, earthquakes and tornadoes combined?

This seems inconceivable but it’s a proven fact.

How do these small insects do it?

By taking one bite at a time.

Have you heard of the book Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy?

The book is based on the thought that if the very first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, nothing worse can happen the rest of the day.

Ugh, yeah, I could probably agree with that.

Take a look at your To-do List.  What on there is the very worst thing that you really don’t want to do?

That’s your frog.

And…. you must eat it – one bite at a time. 🙂

Termites cause all their damage by taking one bite at a time.  If you want to achieve something, you must begin with that first bite and then take another one and another one till you have finished.

“If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.” ~Olin Miller

Isn’t this the truth?  I cannot tell you how many times I avoided doing something when if I had just did it, it would have taken less energy than the avoiding.

Knowing you have a task to do and yet avoiding it is very draining.  As Brian Tracy say’s, “If you eat that frog, it will give you energy and momentum for the rest of the day.”

“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”  –Abraham Lincoln

Currently, I have a lot of frogs in my life.

Here’s my plan. I’m going to write all of them down. Right now.

I have many things I need to do but there are several I know I’m avoiding. Those are my “frogs”.

Okay, I did it.

Five frogs.

Ahem. That was the number 5. Now, I can’t eat all 5 in one day but I can start by taking that first bite.

Sometimes we can avoid a job because we’re truly not sure what to do next. My recommendation would be to decide what your “Next Action” is.  What is the very next thing you need to do to move your task forward? Be very specific, not vague or general.

For instance, one of my frogs is to plan a breakfast menu for the month of March. I’ve been “wanting” to do this for over a week now but haven’t.  Sure I’ve been busy but I know when I’m avoiding something, too.  I need to figure out my Next Action (taken from David Allen’s book Getting Things Done).  What is the very next thing I need to do? Is it printing off a calendar for me to write my menu onto, perusing the Web for new recipes or pulling my cookbooks off the shelves?  See, it doesn’t have to be a big step but whichever one of these I choose will move my project forward.

After I complete my next step, I then need to decide once again what the Next Action will be.  Pinpointing your next action is very important and actually aids you in the completion of it.

“If you haven’t identified the next physical action required to kick-start it, there will be a psychological gap every time you think about it even vaguely.  You’ll tend to resist noticing it.” –David Allen

Why don’t we challenge ourselves today to take that first bite and eat our way to completion this week or at least as much as we are able.

 “You may delay, but time will not.” ~Benjamin Franklin