Back in early April, I found myself on my knees, scrubbing my bathtub. Within an hour, I’d moved on to re-organizing my sock drawer, then dusting furniture, when it finally hit me—I was literally doing anything to avoid my 2018 taxes!
I even have an amazing woman whom I love, and she comes and cleans for me once a week. I try to stay within my zone of genius as much as possible, and I suggest you do so too, since time is our most precious commodity—and cleaning is not in my zone of genius whatsoever— so what the heck was I doing? Have you done this?
This ah-ha moment got me thinking about how sneaky our brains are when it comes to how we choose to spend our time, and how we all face our to-do lists and bigger dreams. Haphazardly!
Spoiler: Turns out I “cherry-pick” a lot!
I’d rather do this than that. Ugh—that will take forever. Maybe I’ll do everything but that. Let me just do this real quick, then I’ll get to that.
Your sneaky brain convinces you that if you just go ahead and clean-up all those little (read: easy) pesky things, then you’ll really have time to tackle the big stuff.
But it’s all lies!
The “small stuff” never goes away—it just regenerates. The little items on your list that’ll just take a minute will always be there, and you can’t escape.
If all you’ve ever done is go after the little stuff first, that’s how you’ll continue to operate—never getting around to the big stuff. Never reaching those goals.
So let’s turn this on its head!
What do you want to do more of in your life?
How about less of?
What do you really want to stop? Start?
It’s vital that we always tackle the most important thing(s) first. Even when we’re scared. Even when we think there’s not enough time, that it’s too hard, that it’s not the right time. Or that we don’t know how. Everything’s figureoutable, oh just always.
Knocking out (or working on) big, important things FIRST will not only feel good, but you’ll create momentum that’ll carry throughout your day. You won’t believe how much you’ll accomplish based on that initial leap.
Each day identify what’s the most important thing you can do to move you towards your big goal and do that first thing! Eat that frog first, so to speak, and see your dreams make leaps and bounds, step by step, or frog by ugly frog— first. If the worst thing you do everyday is eat a frog first thing, the rest of your day will be a breeze. Are you in the habit of saving your frogs until the wee hours? Imagine how awesome the rest of your day would feel if you do the hardest most important thing first.
The good news is we’ve trained ourselves to procrastinate on the most important things, which also means we can un-train ourselves too! It’s just a habit. Try eating your ugliest frog in the morning for 30-days straight and see how your life opens up. It’s my challenge to you.
Start with the hard stuff and slay all day, my friends! You’ll feel so good about your days and the long term benefits of moving towards your goals will give you unparalleled momentum. Go for it! XO
