As a Leader, You have the vision, you have identified where you are on the map. You have even written out your goals on paper, so now what?
Now you have to take action. You have to start to, eat that frog, starting with the largest frogs. Frogs, are the jobs that you wish you didn’t have to do. Tadpoles are the jobs you like to do!
As a start-up Entrepreneur for example, You need to lobby for Capital;
You need to build your team;
You need to launch your product or service.
How do you decide which is the ugliest and biggest, frog, to eat first?
Most entrepreneurs manage by crises.
The, frog, they eat first is the one that is on fire!
Here are 5 ways to strategically, eat that frog, starting with the ugliest one first!
Eat that frog, the largest and ugliest frog first: this is usually marketing.
Your company will rise or fall depending on your marketing strategy.
Eat that frog, get your marketing message out. Marketing is the life blood of your organization.
What is your marketing budget?
What kind of money do you want to make?
Are you hoping to make $50,000 per year or $5,000,000 per year?
These are the questions that need to be answered before you, eat that frog. Begin eating your marketing frog.
You need to set the table before you, eat that frog. How many plates do you need? Are you eating alone or will others be joining you? What are some of the sides that go well with marketing frog eating?
Eat your biggest and ugliest frog first
The ugliest and biggest, frog, is usually picking up the phone and start dialing. In the Pursuit of
Happyness movie which documents a real life event, Chris Gardner’s, frog, was to make 200 calls per day. He, ate that frog, daily until he was full as a millionaire!.
2: Don’t stare at your, frogs, too long. Just, eat that frog, If it is a really ugly and unappetizing frog, just gulp it down with one big bite; don’t cut it up into little pieces.
For example, lets say you decide that today you are going to start your campaign to get funding for your new project. You go through your Rolodex and start calling Venture Capitalists. This frog taste bad; but you eat all of it. You, eat that frog, You don’t stop eating until you have called all the Venture Capitalists on your list.
If you decide for instance to only make 5 calls today and 5 tomorrow, guess what? Tomorrow you going to procrastinate because you hated eating the frogs from yesterday and your mind will gravitate to eating a pleasant tadpole!, Eat that frog, at one sitting and get it out of the way!
3: Celebrate yourself. Pump your fist and pat yourself on the back after you, eat that frog.
You had the courage to do something hard; you did it!!
4: Record your Growth.
Remember when you were a child, your doctor would measure your growth and your weight every time you went to see him? He did this because how much you grew was an indication of how healthy you were.
In a similar way, how much you are growing as a Leader and how much your company grew within a certain period of time is an indication of the health of your company. Growth always depends on how you, eat that frog.
One of the, frogs, you as the Leader of your organization, team or self, MUST eat is the, frog, of Personal Growth. If you don’t, eat that frog, of personal growth, frog, then your company is guaranteed to become stunted and stop growing. Personal growth includes working with a, executive Coach to Helps you:
accomplish your vision for yourself or company,
to establish accountability,
to uncover blind spots,
to sound out new ideas and get feedback.
It involves reading self improvement books and attending seminars in your industry. As the CEO you are the lid! Your company rises or falls under your Leadership so, eat that frog, of personal growth.
5: Eat all your frogs, do not leave anything on your plate.
Let’s say you have 10 frogs on your plate. You, ate that frog, the first two they were the largest and ugliest ones. You may be tempted to bypass or eliminate some of the others; but every one of the frogs you added to your plate had a specific purpose and is tied to a result. Throwing away your peas because you don’t like it, directly impacts the health of your organization. So, eat that frog, eat everything on your plate and your success will be guaranteed!
In Brian Tracy’s book “Eat that Frog” He lists the, rules of frog eating.
Set Goals
The first, rule of frog eating, is to define your largest, frogs, first. The more clear you are about what you want and what you have to do to achieve it, the easier it is for you to overcome procrastination, eat that frog, and get on with the completion of the task.
The no. 1 way to deal with procrastination is to set goals.
Take a blank sheet of paper and write down your top 10 goals you want to achieve this year.
Clarity will give you the ability to know which, frogs, you must eat first to complete your goals.
80/20 Rule
Pareto principle “Small amount of your activities are leading to a huge amount of your results.
Take time to figure out what those things are and do them more often.
For example: If you have 10 things on the list. there is a high probability that 2 things will get you 80% of the success you want.
So it’s crucial to identify what are the 1-2 things you must do now. These things will lead to great majority of your success.
The largest frogs always make the biggest impact so, eat that frog.
Oil Barrels
What we want to do is to have micro goals. Don’t overwhelm yourself, thinking you need to get your goals in just one big step.
This is not going to happen. If you think that, you will procrastinate.
On the other side, if you break down you big goal to tiny little steps and micro goals you can do amazing things.
I-Handle
We waste a lot of time to distract ourselves. Being distracted is the worst enemy of productivity.
Now for example: If you turn off your email notifications, you’ll probably increase your productivity by 10 % – daily.
You don’t want to start something, check an email and then start working again on your task.
That kind of multitasking is horrible for your productivity. If you’re doing that, you have to constantly get your momentum back, figuring out where you left off and it takes you forever to do that task.
It’s very important to do one thing at the time. Get in the habit of finishing things. You start it, you finish it.
If you have a habit of allowing yourself to be distracted, you must discipline yourself to single handle things. You’ll notice your productivity will go way up.
