Eat the frog? I say “fuck the frog.”
Practically every thought leader guru espouses the wisdom, “Eat the Frog First.”
The idea is that if you do the hardest thing first — you know, that supremely annoying, irrationally irksome, bothersome bane of your existence thing — then it’s all downhill from there.
Well, that might have worked before, but it’s not going to cut the coronavirus mustard now.
Eighteen years ago I founded an executive search firm that was exclusively virtual. We didn’t have office space when we — me, my six-week-old, and my five-year-old Dalmation — started, and we — me, my now 17-year-old (and 15-year-old brother), and my three-year-old Doberman, RIP Annie — sold it. It was virtual for its entire existence. And, now I make my living as a speaker and a writer, and you can find me every day sitting in my home office, banging away at the keyboard, efficiently getting shit done.
So, trust me when I tell you: I know how to work from home.
And, here’s my advice to you: “Don’t Eat the Frog First.”
In fact, Fuck the Frog.
Look, it’s a new day, and what worked last week and last month isn’t working today. We all have to figure out how to inspire ourselves to do what needs to be done. So, rather than eating the frog first, I’d like you to do this: Eat dessert first.
Figure out what causes you joy, what you look forward to most, what values you want to live, who you want to serve, and do that first. Tonight, before you go to bed, look at your day tomorrow and decide where it is that you want to be your very best self. And, tomorrow, when you wake up, you’ll be excited to do that thing.
You don’t have to get up and get dressed in professional clothes to be efficient. You don’t have to chain yourself to your desk with a minute-by-minute schedule. You don’t have to set an alarm and keep business hours and have loads of meetings for accountability.
You just have to determine what it is that you really want to do, how you really want to be, who you really want to serve, and do that first. Because, once you do, you’ll be at your desk, you’ll be in your kitchen, you’ll be in your workout space, you’ll be wherever it is that you need to be, and you’ll have momentum.
And momentum beats frog-eating every day of the week.
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