Eat That Frog - Brian Tracy

We all have a million things we need to do, and another million things we wish we could do. Each day we seem to juggle zillion things, get so busy doing these, that at the end of day (week / month / year / life), we wonder what we have accomplished? What have we really done? Where does time go? What was I so busy doing that I couldn't get busy doing the things that matter to self, family, team, organization and world at large?

A small paperback book "Eat That Frog" describes strategies that we can apply straightaway. It is small (100ish pages), but the knowledge there in, when applied, packs a powerful punch in getting things done, and feeding into self-esteem, self-discipline and self-worth.

This article shows some of my learnings, Aha's and examples from my own life where it has impacted my life as proof. Please follow Brian Tracy and Eat That Frog for this book and many more amazing course and learnings to improve self-discipline, achieve high productivity and mastery over time.

So many frogs so little time!

"Eat a frog! Seriously - I won't do it, unless it is the frog I must eat!" - Kirti


Best place to begin?
At the beginning!

Simple as it sounds, it is indeed the perfect place to start.

Decision time:
(a) 20% of the frogs will produce 80% or more of all the results I want. Identify and keep them on scroll paper.
(b) Rest of the frogs either contribute minorly (secondary scrap paper) or none at all (belong in trash bin!).

Great Questions to ask:
(a) What is the consequence to the goal if that particular frog is chosen or not chosen? No consequences, then why the heck are we expending energy on them?
(b) If you don't pick that frog then no one will - is that ok by your target(s)?
(c) If you only had time for 3 frogs - what would the top & first 3 frogs be? Remembering that I don't need to see the subsequent frogs, just the ones that I have visibility for.

Key outcome of this decision time is to segregate and categorize the frogs based on targets we have set ourselves that we MUST do (irrespective to our moods), SHOULD / NICE (some leeway to moods), DELEGATE (someone else can do it, and do it better), and finally ELIMINATE (useless junk!)

Ready to Eat?

Now what? How to tackle those top frogs? Decision is just the beginning, with those decisions, one has to ACT on them! If we don't then it is just a wishy-washy pipe-dream.

Setup for Success:
(a) Schedule undivided focused large blocks of time.
(b) Set a a deadline with rewards and consequences.
(c) Become the primary cheerleader for picking the frog.
(d) Clear the environment and space, making it easy to eat.
(e) Ensure the space is distraction free - box up / close the social media, non productive conversations, email, phone, and anything that interrupts the frog eating activity

Great Questions to ask:
(a) Do I have the skills to eat this particular frog?
(b) What are the key personal / professional limitations that I need to overcome?

Let's Eat!!

All this to get to the table, sit down with tools and eat the frog!

Action:
(a) Break up the frog into small pieces and tackle the hardest first and then next. Schedule all the pieces to ensure all those bits get consumed. Continue the cheers and success celebration.
(b) Spend pre-defined optimal amount time to make a decent dent in the frog! Undistracted time allows for getting into the "zone" / "flow", and massive progress is achieved.
(c) Technology is a friend and foe! Use technology to make eating efficient - ensure frog is ready for consumption (or get it ready). Make a distraction box and toss all the technology, social media and other aspects that distract ones attention from attending to the frog on plate
(d) Create a sense of urgency - hard frogs are hard to eat! So, either spend time thinking of hard it is, or just get to it before the feelings and emotions take you away from the frog, or are tempted to eat chips instead. More practice I have in eating the hardest frog, better is sense of accomplishment, achievement and self-esteem.
(e) Eat that frog (or that slice of it) dedicatedly until it is done. Touch it once, do it well, and close it off. Unbelievably, it takes less time to do that than it takes if we switch in and out of that frog eating, because I have to build up courage, intention and cheer myself all over again to bring myself to eat that nasty-frog.

The above three are iterative and require constant vigilance, re-evaluations and flexibility. Actions produce outcomes that have to be taken into consideration and new (or revised) decisions have to flow through the process.

Proof from my life:

  • Life bucket list is where I started and then each year decide what are the critical things for the year. These formed guideposts for my goals. As the year evolved, so did the monthly milestones and tasks. However, continuous evaluation allowed for course corrections, scheduling the follow ups lest we forget and eliminating that which does not help.

The best proof that eating the frog works is my journey of being blessed with US Citizenship.

Decision time:
Multi-year goal: Become US Citizen. It was the biggest frog in 1996 when came to US as a student.
Biggest consequence of choosing this: Continued work and life in the US
Biggest consequence of not choosing this: How miserably sad, label of failure, pain, sorrow, and have to go back to place I didn't want to go back to.
Overall plan (rough sketch): I knew as well the general lay out of the steps, but my journey was uncharted and hitherto unknown. Visibility was just till the next milestone - be a good student and work towards organization sponsored permanent residency.

Setup for Success:
Did I have all the skills? Yes! Great work ethic, self-motivation, proactive engagement, and engage in "then some" attitude.
Do I need improvement is skills? Yes - Always room for improvement! Get better at communication, practice generosity - go beyond, read more, learn more and put skills into practice. Above all - know the overall plan, people and stay on target with communications!
Daily: Show up with the best of myself!

Action:
As a student I could only focus on my technical skills and interviewing with companies that sponsored next step - student with practical training and permanent residency processing along with great work and culture.

Once I had a full time position, the journey began in earnest. Along with continued improvement of technical prowess and emotional people management - that kept me gainfully employed through ups and downs of the organization, economy and other factors - there was continued self-managed-pressure to take the next steps in path towards permanent residency.
Scheduled time: Key conversations, communication, document gathering, putting file together with notarizations and other requirements. Use vacation time to process through these aspects become non-negotiables. Play time came after the essentials were done.

I remember a key conversation where I sought to proceed with willingness to bear additional costs for separate processing from my colleagues. The colleagues were "mildly interested and didn't mind how it processed", while I was "do-or-die and willing to do any/everything ethical, moral and legal." It took courage, self-motivation and above all a calendar of scheduled milestones for events and communication. While hard to do, it was this that allowed my paperwork to be pushed through with "reduction in recruitment" phase of processing. That was my reward - faster processing and timely outcomes towards permanent residency.

The rest as they say is history! It took 17 years of persistent decision making, setting up for success and followed with courageous, proactive actions to get to US Citizen swearing in ceremony. At the reward ceremony, I remember feeling gratitude for each and every day that I chose the difficult step, cleared space, scheduled it, and followed through with action.

Where do I go from here?

  • I have come to believe that deciding which frog to be eaten, clearing schedule for it and then getting to it without any emotional chatter is the way I have conquered some of more difficult aspect of life.

  • As 2022 rolls in, with new roles and responsibilities, the process remains the same, making time for that what is important to me, and treating it will the level of urgency and criticality - because bottom line - it is important to me and if I don't make time for it - no one will!

Where do you find yourself as you read this article?

Have you decided on your life priorities? What is stopping you from working on these? Why has there been no measurable progress?

What are you waiting for? - Let's Eat that Frog and make success predictable.

"There is no limit to what you can accomplish when you learn to Eat That Frog" - Brian Tracy


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