Happy Tuesday! Here on My Pocketful of Thoughts I like to discuss topics that are affecting me. us all. Today I thought I’d revisit Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy. I started reading this book last summer and half of the pages are full of sticky note place holders. As I’ve re-read sections to discuss here on the blog, I’ve run across something that I have been implementing and I share that with you today.
“…The Quick List Method
Here is an exercise that we use with our coaching clients very early in the process. We give them a sheet of paper and then tell them, “In thirty seconds, write down your three most important goals in life right now.”
We have found that when people have only thirty seconds to write their three most important goals, their answers are as accurate as if they had thirty minutes or three hours. Their subconscious minds seem to go into a form of “hyperdrive,” and their three most important goals pop out of their heads and onto the paper, often to the surprise of the people doing the exercise.
…When you force yourself to ask and answer each of these questions in thirty seconds or less, you will often be amazed at the answers. Whatever your answers, they will usually be an accurate snapshot of your true situation in life at the moment. These answers will tell you what is really important to you.
While you are setting goals and priorities, getting organized, concentrating single-mindedly on one task at a a time, and disciplining yourself to complete your most important tasks, you must never forget that your ultimate goal is to live a long, happy, and healthy life….” -Pg 50-52 from Eat That Frog!
I had the opportunity to go to a Brian Tracy seminar a few years ago, and we did this very exact exercise. Brian asked a series of questions (that you can also find in this book), I reviewed the list at the seminar, and then stuffed the list into my notebook and completely forgot about it. I know, I know. Don’t we all do this though, we take valuable information, things to get us ahead in life, and we regard it as “nice things to know”. What if we actually took the information we were given and DID something with it? Imagine the potential. Well, I found the list when I was going through my old notebooks, I read the items on my list and I had actually completed half of them. I had goosebumps.
The first step to achieving any goal, is to write it down. WRITE IT DOWN! If you don’t already have your goals written out then I suggest you do it right now….go ahead I’ll wait. Even if you never look at the list again, its in your head, your brain has already started to figure out ways to make it happen.
Speaking them into existence gets others to help you work towards your goals. SPEAK YOUR GOALS INTO EXISTENCE. Go ahead, speak them out loud, I’ll wait. I found out my friend has written a graphic novel. How awesome is that?! But I would have never known, if she did not speak it out loud. All she needs is an illustrator to finish the book and begin to publish it. If you happen to know the process to finding an illustrator and how to self-publish a book, let me know in the comments section or send me an email by hitting the email icon in the right hand panel. See what just happened there, I spoke it into existence to and now you’re thinking hmm do I know an illustrator or do I know anything about self-publishing. She is now working on her goals with help. This is why we must speak our goals into existence.
One of my goals this year has been to organize my desk. In January I removed every single item from my desk area and piled it up onto the other side of my bedroom. It is this monster of a pile. I swear it speaks to me. :/ It kind of sounds like the plant from Little Shop of Horrors, when the plant says to Seymour, FEED ME. I’m not going to lie, the pile scares the living daylights out of me. Its this HUGE task that I think about and see every day. So why don’t I act on it? Why is my desk not organized? Huge tasks scare us all. This is why we should tackle all HUGE goals, one bite at a time, just eat that frog right?
A few months ago, my very good friend introduced me to a site called Me and You Health. This site has a daily challenge that is sent every day to your inbox in hopes of changing your life with a task. When I first joined the site I was interested in how the challenges might better my life. As time went on, I thought it was nice to meet new people with similar goals and to hear their stories. It wasn’t until I changed the track I was on to Clutter (You receive a different set of challenges depending on what you want to work on.) that a light bulb went on. Every day I received a challenge to sort through/organize/clean for a 15 minute interval. 15 minutes was all I had to do. It is a short amount of time, you isolate one thing that you can start working on and you get to it. Once you start making progress you look up at the clock and an hour has gone by. It makes the goal more approachable and it gives me confidence that I will get it done. If 15 minutes is too long for you start at 5 minutes and increase how long you work on something over time.
Whatever your goals are, write them down, speak them into existence and start working on them today. As Brian Tracy has said, Eat That Frog! #GiddyUP
PS If you do happen to know the process of hiring an illustrator for a book you’re writing or the methods of self-publishing please share 🙂