Don’t you hate it when your friends are right?! I know I do! Especially when you have a best friend like mine! Love her to death, and she always has your best interests at heart but damn! This girl LOVES to be right, and she LOVES to gloat! She is a terrible winner let’s just say that… I lie sometimes when she’s right just so that she wouldn’t be right, but let’s be real she knows I’m lying… Man, I wish I could blame a bunch of my life choices on being drunk, just saying. But putting that all aside, the biggest lesson that I’ve learned this weekend, is that you have to “swallow your frogs” if you ever hope to move forward positively in your life.
Now you may be wondering, what does she mean? Swallow your frogs? I’m sure most of us know that we need to get uncomfortable first before we make any real change. This is true with diet, exercise, anything really. Anything new and scary will be uncomfortable, and challenging, like a new diet plan, or workout routine. However, the more you do it, the easier it gets, for the most part that is… But that’s not exactly what I’m talking about. Swallowing your frogs, basically means that you need to start tackling the things that you know you have to do, but you’ve been avoiding to do. We all do this! I know that I have recently been a culprit of this BIG TIME! We all get caught up in our daily lives, and our own bad habits. We tend to do the things we enjoy the most, and we avoid all the things we don’t enjoy. However, just because we’re not doing the tasks that we don’t want to do, doesn’t mean that they suddenly disappear. If anything these tasks, or frogs, just keeping growing and getting worse, making them less and less appealing, and harder to swallow. Sucks right? I know, trust me!
That is why it is so important for you to at least swallow one frog a day. You can pick the frog, because I know from experience, the more someone nags me to do something, the less likely I’m going to do it. I HATE SO MUCH being told what to do, especially when I’m being told repeatedly! I will maybe do it begrudgingly, or it just won’t ever get done… So, to avoid this issue, and because most of us reading this blog are capable adults, we can decide for ourselves which uncomfortable task we are willing to tackle first. If, for example one of your frogs is to go to the gym? Then get it done first thing in the morning! It is much easier to swallow a frog first thing in the morning. You are much more motivated to tackle the day in the morning. Plus, once you’ve got the worst part of your day done first, well the rest of the day should be smooth sailing! Or, if your frog is to loose weight/stick to your diet, well then plan and pack your meals right before you go to bed. That way when you get up in the morning, you don’t have to think about what you’re supposed to be eating for the day, because it was already planned out for you. It will then be much easier to stick to your diet, because all the hard work was done ahead of time.
These are just a couple examples of some of the frogs in your life that are piling up behind you, constantly making ribbit sounds in the background. Some louder than others, but the more often you do these uncomfortable tasks, the better you will be at getting through it, and the smaller the pile of frogs! Whatever your frogs may be, you will not get any closer to where you want to be if you don’t deal with these things first. Unfortunately, our problems don’t just disappear, but the better you become at managing these difficult tasks, the better your quality of life will be. Also, side-note, the more successful you become the bigger your problems. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you really want to move further in life you need to be able to handle the frogs you have now. I know I’m committed to a frog a day, are you?
Alex Rinaldo 