WELCOME TO INSPIRATION NATION
WHERE WE WILL REVIEW 1 chapter of Brian Tracey’s book, “Eat That Frog” each day in FABruary
The Cliff Notes from today’s reading:
“The Introduction”
The introduction begins very positively reminding us that there’s never been more opportunities for you to achieve your goals. However, the author, Brian Tracey also reiterates because of the immense possibilities, we could also find ourselves drowning in options. He underscores how you will ALWAYS be behind in SOME of your tasks and probably MANY of them.
Brian, then quickly reviews some of the specific topics we will begin to delve more into as the book unfolds, I’ve recapped them briefly for you below.
THE NEED TO BE SELECTIVE
Your ability to select your most important task, get started on it, complete it quickly and well, will have more of an impact on your success than any other quality or skill you can develop. (WOW!)
THE TRUTH ABOUT FROGS
Your “frog” is your most important task, the on you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it.
Rule 1 of Frog Eating: “If you have to eat 2 frogs, eat the ugliest one 1st”
Rule 2 of Frog Eating: “If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long.”
TAKE ACTION IMMEDIATELY
Successful, effective people are those who launch directly into their major tasks and then discipline themselves to work steadily and single-mindedly until those tasks are complete.
DEVELOP THE HABIT OF SUCCESS
Make a habit of starting and completing important tasks FIRST! This is a mental and physical skill, which means it is “learnable” through practice and repetition!
DEVELOP A POSITIVE ADDICTION
It is possible develop an addiction to the endorphins that are released when you accomplish an important goal.
NO SHORTCUTS
There’s no quick fix, but be encouraged sisters! Your mind is like a muscle; with practice, you an learn ANY behavior or habit!
THE 3 Ds OF NEW HABIT FORMATION
Decision – make a decision to develop a habit of task completion
Discipline – disciple yourself to practice the principles you are about to learn repeatedly until they truly become a habit
Determination – back everything you do with determination until the habit is locked in and becomes a permanent part of your personality.
VISUALIZE YOURSELF THE WAY YOU WANT TO BE
You must SEE YOURSELF as the kind of person who gets important jobs done quickly and well on a consistent basis. The way you see yourself on the inside (your self image) largely determines your performance on the outside.
KEY TAKE-A-WAYS from the INTRODUCTION:
1. An average person who develops the habit of setting priorities and getting important tasks completed quickly will run circles around a genius who makes wonderful plans but gets little done.
2. The 1 most important decision you make each day is what you will do immediately and what you will do later, if you do it at all.
3. Many people confuse activity with accomplishment. Talking all day in endless meetings, but not actually doing ANYTHING!
4. Completing major tasks releases in endorphins. Our bodies can become addicted to the endorphin release of achieving our goals!
DIVA ASSIGNMENT:
- Today’s reading assignment is to read the INTRODUCTION of the book only.
- Sit for a moment diva, and really reflect on the following question before rushing to answer. What truly stops from your doing what you KNOW needs to be done to achieve your goals? It’s not enough to just know what to do, you have to actually do it!!! Share here in the comments of this post what you believe stops you from achieving your goals?
- Share this post! Let’s encourage our family and friends to EAT FROGS with us!
It's not enough to just know what to do, you have to actually DO what you KNOW! -EAT THAT FROG Click To Tweet
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I’m Nicole Twyman, a native New Orleanian, who has lived all across the US! Although, my small family of 4 currently calls Los Angeles, CA home. I am a proud 40+ year old mom of a wonderfully energetic and theatrical daughter, and a handsome, scholarly athlete!
While I have worked in corporate America as a certified senior project / program / portfolio manager for Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft, Procter & Gamble & IBM, my passion is service. It has always been my desire to live a life of service to others; which I took every opportunity to explore as an active member of many of my church’s ministries and of my public service sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, Inc.
Well, now I am over the top excited to have the opportunity to serve divas through my very own ministry, Fit, Fyne & Fabulous.
What stops me from doing what I know needs to be done is that I just look at the frog and think I can eat it at any time and I may or mostly may not start doing unimportant menial tasks because the frog is in the way. Therefore, I never get to the frog and it keeps hopping around in my mind reminding me that it needs to be done. This introduction is very encouraging to me and has made me realize that doing the biggest and most important tasks first will clear the way to get other things done.
I love the concept of tackle the biggest & most important one 1st is going to be so helpful
OMG!! I so need this book in my life right now. I line my frogs up daily and try to eat them up all at once. It’s so reassuring to know that I may only it one daily and that’s ok. The pressure I put on myself to finish it all in a day is unreal. Perfect Book at the Perfect time!!
Great to hear it!!!
What stops me from eating my frog is deciding which frog I should eat first. I make too many things priorities rather than deciding which frog is the biggest and should be tackled first. It’s my indecision that gets me. If I can concur that I can get better at eating those frogs.
I know the feeling they all seem so important.
Yessss, you are so awesome wanting to make everyone happy. But you gotta do what’s best for G. You got this sister mister!!
I think about all my frogs at once…not being able to sometimes focus on the most important frog. I constantly think about the entire list though I have prioritized. I have to not put all of my frogs on the same list in order to achieve goals. I normally end up wearing myself out if I don’t do it that way! And then sometimes I feel as if all of my frogs have the same importance thus making it hard (sometimes) to decide which to eat first 🙂
I can totally relate!!! I order them as best I can, and do what I think is right at that time. Otherwise, you will be stuck staring at the frogs.
I think what stops me from accomplishing my goals is thinking of all I have to do, trying to figure out what to do first. I become discouraged and then not having the energy to do it. I thinking how did I get this far in life! 🤔🙄
I did take a huge step this year by creating a vision board.Great chapter to reflect on!
Congrats on your vision board. The good thing about lists that you prioritize is you KNOW that everything on that list is needed. So, no matter which you do first, you’re doing a great job. Just do one as quickly as you can, and to its completion and keep moving down the list sis
I have too many frogs and I am a perfectionist. I want to have it done perfectly.
Girrrrrrl, that used to be me!!!! Until God released me from that. Perfection doesn’t exist except thru HIM! Just do your personal very best!
What stops me from reaching my goals is, I get sidetracked because I want to do so many things that I lose steam. One thing that stood out to me in the introduction was to tackle the major things first and I’m used to working on small things, gave me something to think about.
Yes this is great info! Complete one thing at a time and you will get it all done.
Overthinking and saying I can do it later. Then there is not time to do it or I’m exhausted.
This book is digging deep into what we are doing. I see you changing this up so it will work for you. I am routing for you!
The thing that stops me from eating my frogs is me! Many times I will go to do a thing I don’t wanna do and I will stop right on my tracks and say outright I’m not doing it. I know it’s important and detrimental if not done but I walk away any way. Typing this is make me ashamed but I know it’s me. When I have to get a thing done I literally talk out loud and tell myself to get your butt up and do this now.
As Danielle, mentioned above, I’m my worst enemy. I sit around and think about things that I need to do and I’ll say “oh I’ll do it later, and it never gets done. From this day forward, I will do better. I feel I’ve on the road to recovery, because I have my calendar noted with things I need to do.
Wow, I see that this is common in all of us. Well we are starting to make changes and I like that idea of putting it on the calendar. So it will prompt us to get it done. Thanks for sharing and I am glad you are getting some good stuff from this book.
What stops me from getting my things done is waiting for the “perfect time” like such a thing will ever exist. I am waiting for all the stars to align until I get started. When my kids are older, when the house is clean, when life is not crazy, etc. I am always waiting for the perfect time. I keep waiting until I can see how I’m going to get the whole thing done instead of doing what I can do today and decide when I can get the rest done. Almost as if I’m saving myself from failure by never getting started. If I don’t start I can’t fail.
Sounds like procrastination, but it really is fear of failure. You only fail if you don’t try. Every time you don’t start you are actually failing by default. Start!! You never fail if you start and keep going!