Eat a frog first thing in the morning

“If you eat a frog first thing in the morning, the rest of your day will be wonderful.” - Mark Twain

“If you have to eat a frog, don’t look at it for too long.”  - Mark Twain

So, what does this mean?  There is an extremely famous book which explains this in an easy and effortless manner.  This book on productivity is called "Eat That Frog" by the legend Brian Tracy. The core concept behind the book simply  states you do your most important task (MIT) first thing in the morning. Thereafter the rest of the day is much easier to manage.

In other words it simply means just do the yucky stuff first, and then get on to do the other cool stuff you enjoy or are comfortable with. In this manner your are able to minimise the phenomenon where you get trapped in a difficult task you left to be completed last.

In order to eat that frog we need to be focused. In other words, we need to be aware of what needs to be done. So, for us to feel like that we are getting more out of our life, it is important to create a personal vision statement. 

For those of us who are confused about setting goals then this approach could be extremely helpful. By creating such a statement it allows us to establish our short and long term goals. Thus on the subconscious level we start impacting and influencing our daily plan i.e.  having the ability to focus on what needs to be done. 


Remember four things when you focus on what you want to achieve:

1. Have a vision/purpose that motivates you, this brings enthusiasm and passion within you
2. Take steady steps out of your comfort zone, this allows you to stretch/expand your comfort zone
3. Setting yourself easy goals usually doesn't excite us an individual. Neither do they tend to motivate us to complete them as they are too easy
4. Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway®, be willing to take some risks and go after what you want

Confused About Goals!!!

A very few of us have been taught about the importance of goals.  In fact a number of us started to learn about goals sometime during our working life. Till date a lot us are still confused about goals and some of us are still learning how to set goals.

In a number of cases we are too scared to set goals as we believe we will fail. So, we avoid setting goals as they are certain pay-offs we achieve by not setting goals. We as humans love to be in our comfort zone and will find any justification or excuse for not achieving them.

Most of us believe when we are unable to achieve our goal/goals it is the end of our existence or that we are good for nothing. Our focus is so much on the negative that we forget about all the good that has happened and all the good that already exists.  We label ourself's as a failure rather then viewing the situation as a feedback. 

A feedback which could mean that we need re-evaluate our goal, think of taking smaller steps towards the goal, review carefully what resources are required, define realistic timelines (realistic to yourself) or plainly work towards a more inspiring goal.  

Everyone has their own pace and learning curve to reach to a goal. For example for one person to learn how to ride a bicycle is a matter of few hours and for another it could be a matter of days or even years. This simply means everyone has set their own limitations and will work around these limitations to get to the outcome. When we overcome these limitations we succeed.

When looking at goals we have need to think on the following basis and it is entirely up to you take up what relates to you the most:

SMART Goals

• S = Specific
• M = Measurable 
• A = Attainable
• R = Realistic
• T = Timely 

SPIRIT Goals

• S = Specific
• P = Prizes (reward yourself)
• I   = Individual (something you want)
• R = Review (on a regular basis)
• I   = Inspiring
• T  = Timely

SMARTER Goals

• S = Specific
• M = Measurable
• A = Attainable
• R = Realistic
• T = Timely
• E = Enthusiasm 
• R = Rewarding

HARD Goals

• H = Heartfelt
• A = Aspiring/Animated
• R = Required
• D = Dynamic/Difficult