18 – Eat That Frog and First Fears

Health Fit Business

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I’d be lying if I said Brian Tracy’s books aren’t some of my favorites.

I don’t want to be a liar. I love Brian Tracy’s books. One of my favorites is called ‘Eat That Frog‘.

Before we get into it…

Our Daily Domination Journal is now available for pre-order! If you enjoy the podcast, you will love the DDJ. We put together all the tools, routines, and templates we use into the journal to make it really easy for you to follow and save more time, make more money, and be more productive. Check it out here.

First Fears and Frogs

You have big plans and big aspirations. You are also busy and have a lot of stuff on your plate.

It’s easy to go to bed looking forward to the next day thinking about all the progress you are going ot make. But then you wake up, you’re tired, you have to make coffee, eat breakfast, and then get on with it.

You spend the rest of the day doing your task based work diligently. At night, when you finally get home. You’re tired and reflect on your day. You didn’t get any of those big things done you had hoped for.

You go to bed that night thinking how tomorrow will be different. But it isn’t.

And on and on it goes.

Time To Change

The frog is the thing you need to do but aren’t doing it. It is your first fear for the day.

If before you went to bed each night, you wrote down just 2 things to do the next day that aren’t just task based work, but project based work, then woke up and did those before anything else, you’d get 700 things like that done per year.

Per YEAR.

Can you imagine how much progress you could make on what you REALLY want to accomplish if you did 700 meaningful tasks per year?

Well the good news is you can and it’s actually pretty easy if you build it as a habit. The habit of confronting your first fears every morning.

What Are Your Habits?

One of my favorite quotes is from Herbert Gray: “Successful people make a habit of doing the things unsuccesful people don’t like to do”.

Nobody wants to wake up and spend time on the hard things.

If you want to be successful, that is a habit you need to create.

There are a few strategies you can use. You can just write two things every night on a piece of paper and then do them.

You can make a spreadsheet and do it that way.

We also have a section in the Daily Domination Journal that specifically has a place for your first fears.

Whatever you choose, the idea is this: identify them and then execute.

I don’t care if you have the fanciest excel spreadsheet if you don’t actually DO anything. So what if you have it all laid out nicely?

I’d rather see two lines in a book with ACTION than a fancy spreadsheet where nothing actually gets done.

This Week’s Challenge

For the next week, each night write down two things you need to get done the next day that move the needle forward. Then, wake up a little earlier than usual and DO them!!!!

Now….

GET AFTER IT!

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Ryan: I’m Dr. Ryan Debell. Welcome back to the Health Fit Biz Podcast for episode number 18 which is about eating that frog from the book Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy or as we like to say “first fears”. This is really about getting the things done at the beginning of the day that needing it done in a way we have this big idea. We have this big goals of “I’m gonna do this great things. I’m gonna accomplish great things.” Then we wake up. We eat breakfast. We ran at the door and we do essential task-based work all day long and at the end of the day we are too tired to do those big things we wanted to do. So the idea of “first fear” is at the beginning of the day, you do two things everyday that move the needle forward and that are really not task-based work but project-based work. So that’s kinda what we gonna talk about this episode and Anthony and I, we’re extremely excited for, not all of you have seen this already, we’re extremely excited for our Daily Domination Journal that we put together. That’s a 28-day journal with a monthly self evaluation, weekly preparation and daily domination templates. This is literally a journal meant for people who want to get things done and want a structure that helps them get things done faster. So we made one and it’s coming out soon. We hope to have it shipped by January 1st of 2017. So it’s essentially being shipped to us right now and we’re going to get the orders out. It is available for preorder at healthfit.biz/journal. We only have a limited supply for the first run so if you want to get one as soon as they’re available make sure to go to healthfit.biz/journal and preorder it and we appreciate how you guys are supporting this. And let’s go ahead listen in to this episode.

Anthony: Hi Dr. Ryan Debell. Welcome to another episode of Health Fit Business Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Anthony Gustin.

Ryan: I wanna say every other word of the title of the show.

Anthony: Okay, let’s go for it. Go.

Ryan: The Health

Anthony: Fit

Ryan: Business

Anthony: No, no. Health

Ryan: Fit

Anthony: Biz

Ryan: Ness

Anthony: Pod

Ryan: Cast

Anthony: I’m your host, Dr. Anthony Gustin.

Ryan: I’m your co-host, Dr. Ryan Debell.

Anthony: And today we have an episode about getting.. So we talked about deep work. However the deep work episode is gonna be processed a little bit differently. We gonna have different goals, different things to do each and everyday and so there’s a concept behind this called, there’s a book I forgot the author, we’ll have in the shownotes but it’s about eating the frog.

Ryan: Eat That Frog. I’m gonna look up the author.

Anthony: And so the way I think about it is first fears. By tackling your first fears. The things that you’re scared of the most but the things that you should always be tackling first in the day.

Ryan: Those things you go “Ahh, I don’t wanna do this but I really know that I should.”

Anthony: And what’s with this quotes, I don’t know who to attribute it to but an entrepreneurial success is measured by the amount of uncomforable…

Ryan: Ha! Eat That Frog is written by Brian Tracy.

Anthony: You’re a man. You’re a man. You are.

Ryan: I had no idea.

Anthony: This is like Dr. Debell’s idol.

Ryan: How funny is that because I was reading another book. You know the self-discipline one? I was like “Man, this is really good.” And we read Eat That Frog we were like “This is really good.” Freakin’ Brian Tracy were both of them.

Anthony: This is certainly a side by Eat That Frog book. It’s kinda like our podcast.

Ryan: It’s the best book.

Anthony: It’s The Best. Nobody makes podcast but us.

Ryan: That’s not what I meant.

Anthony: No. It’s.. it’s… It’s digestible actionable stuff. He gets the point. He just says it.

Ryan: My mind is just blown apart right now. That Brian Tracy wrote that I had no idea. It’s literally like the book that everyone else wrote a book about but diluted. The whole point of it though is that there’s certain things that need to get done in a day, if you really wanna move forward, and this will be done in your essentially your deep work time. And if you don’t do them at the beginning of the day chances are it’s not gonna get done.

Anthony: What does eat that frog really mean? Like what it’s saying about?

Ryan: No one like… Eating the frog is like essentially something like you don’t want to actually eat the frog but you have to eat the frog and…

Anthony: What’s the story behind was like?

Ryan: Behind actually eating the frog? Hmm I can’t remember that.

Anthony: It was something like some guy didn’t want to do but he did it anyway. And that was beneficial for him.

Ryan: For some reason eating the frog was beneficial although he didn’t wanna do it. So you have to think about what are the frogs? Those things that you need to do but aren’t necessarily appealing to do. I figure out what those are on a day to day basis. Now I know that you figure out that the night before?

Anthony: Yeah. I have a little system reported to the sheet that I fell out of. There are basically two things that I don’t want to do on the next day and I trust to do those things first before I do anything else. These typically coincide with deep work hours and if you don’t know what that means read Deep Work by Cal Newport and also listen to our podcast on Deep Work. But those things about getting uncomfortable on doing things that other people normally wouldn’t do, if you’re doing two things everyday that most people wouldn’t do. One, two, three, five, ten years later you’re gonna have so much more success and accomplish so many more things than other people who don’t focus on doing the small things day in and day out just because they’re not fun, they’re not exciting, they are uncomfortable, they may be put you in an awkward situation. These are the things like Brian Tracy says in a book, the ugliest, fattest, nastiest, slimiest frog. If you had a couple of frogs, that’s some you should do first. The most disgusting thing. That thing that you’re most uncomfortable with, the thing that you’re avoiding the most is typically the thing that you need to get done now.

Ryan: I got quote that goes along with them. It’s “Successful people make a habit of doing the things that unsuccessful people don’t like to do.”

Anthony: Is that from BT?

Ryan: That is from one of his books but it is a quote from Herbert Gray.

Anthony: Okay, good.

Ryan: I mean, isn’t that essentially what we’re saying? Successful people make a habit of eating the frog.

Anthony: Exactly. We’ve brushed on this a couple of times. When you have a to-do list. It’s easy to respond to the emails, it’s easy to take out the garbage, it’s easy to do things that don’t require energy and input and thought in work because we’re programmed to accomplish things.

Ryan: Exactly.

Anthony: But it doesn’t mean getting stuff done. It doesn’t mean we’re more being effective or efficient.

Ryan: Yeah and so figuring out on the day to day and planning your day on the night before “What are the frogs tomorrow that I gotta go eat?”

Anthony: The things that you’re fearful of doing, you should be doing those things first. That’s why we’re calling them the first fears. Frogs does sound weird. I don’t wanna eat frog.

Ryan: Well, that’s the point. You don’t want to eat your frog.

Anthony: I know what you want. You think about eating the frog .

Ryan: In the morning we always have more energy and willpower and that get to worn out throughout the day. So that’s when you need to be doing these things. That’s when you need to be spending the time tackling these. Now if this was easy, it wouldn’t be something that gross you. I guess those a weird syntax. If it was easy it wouldn’t be a task that’s gonna develop you, well or what you’re doing because things that we’re not good at or more challenging and intimidating to do because we aren’t good at them. And sort of the fear is like “I don’t know how to do this. I’m gonna have to figure this out. I don’t know, I won’t be able to do it. Blah blah blah.” But if you face those fears first, if you eat that frog first, when you have the most willpower, when you have those energy in the morning you’re gonna have a higher success rate. If you wait till the end of the day it’s so much easier to go. “I got that recorded with the Walking Dead. I’m gonna watch or you know I’m gonna just answer this email..” and then it never gets done.

Anthony: Well then, that way let’s say you get one of the things done your day is a success already.

Ryan: Before 10am?

Anthony: Yeah. Your day’s a success. You already have one big win and now you can just be happy about that and start crashing on smaller stuff and feel very accomplished.

Ryan: And that feeling of accomplishment is really important. Because if you can start the day with getting some very important things accomplished it’s empowering. And it totally changes how you act with the rest of the day. You know when people get frustrated? Do you know why people get frustrated a lot of the times?

Anthony: Why is that? Tell me.

Ryan: Because of doing what they are supposed to be doing, they think about needing to do the thing. And then they get frustrated, and agitated, and irritated. Just do the stuff. Do the work. Eat the frog and you’re gonna be so much happier with yourself. You’re gonna feel empowered and you’re going to be moving yourself towards your goals and your vision and your purpose.

Anthony: And like you said, to grow requires being uncomfortable just like to grow muscle while working out requires being uncomfortable in pushing through hard workouts is the same exact thing that you can’t stay comfortable and expect change.

Ryan: How is this for another quote?

Anthony: Hit me with that.

Ryan: “Everything is hard before it’s easy.”

Anthony: That’s good. Who said that one?

Ryan: I don’t know how to say this. I don’t know who that is.

Anthony: Gah.

Ryan: Goath. I don’t know. G-O-E-T-H-E. Maybe we should know that. We’ll google it. Bing it.

Anthony: Bing it? No, google.

Ryan: I get points. Um, so yeah it’s just a thing. Everything is hard before it’s easy. And if you really want to make more things easy so that you have higher capabilities you have to do the things that are hard.

Anthony: No option. You need to push yourself. You need to open up the boundaries. You need a positive stressor to adapt to. Your body needs and your mind needs this change and this push that says “Oh okay, I should change or be better for next time when you’re learning some things.”

Ryan: If you don’t challenge it, it’ll never adapt. So I think the key to success with the frog is number one, you have to have everything set, your purpose, your vision and your goal. Otherwise, how do you know your frogs are if you don’t know what those are. Then don’t do this like the morning out, I think like you need to have your day plan the night before which is also a great habit to develop, so that when you wake up you know what you’re gonna be doing right off the bat. And then you know what, you know what really matters ? Then you just gotta do it. Jump in.

Anthony: Do it the night before versus that day off. Then the night before, you guys should have to do all these stuff. It’s easy to pick up the two things that you need to get done because you know at that time at night you’re busy like programming for someone else like “I’m not gonna be doing this tonight.” It’s easy to decide what’s hard to do. But if it’s the morning of, you have to think like “What am I gonna be doing in like three minutes from now?” You’re never gonna pick the hardest thing.

Ryan: Right. And what are the other things that Brian Tracy says in Eat That Frog, BT, is don’t go examine all low nasty parts of the frog before you have to eat it. You just shove that thing in your mouth.

Anthony: Take a bite.

Ryan: Take and bite and don’t like “Ugh, there’s this little part here. Na na na.” Just start doing it because you know what, once you’re actually in the midst of doing the work you’re like “Why didn’t I start this earlier?:

Anthony: Yeah. It really isn’t hard than it seems though in retrospect.

Ryan: In retrospect, it’s not. It’s like when you’re doing it and done now, you know, you just feel so good about it so you’re just… You have to like.. It’s like when you’re working out, let’s say you’re doing like… I don’t know why I wanna go with that just ignore I just said that.

Anthony: It’s like you’re doing a really hard work out.

Ryan: Let’s say you’re doing the workout with Cindy. You Cindy? Five?

Anthony: Oh yeah.

Ryan: Pull ups? Don’t think about getting into that next round. Just start doing the wraps. Just start doing the wraps. Same thing here don’t think about “Ahh, I have to do the..” Just start doing it. There’s no other magic than that. You have to just jump in. And that’s actually training yourself. Training yourself to start without hesitation. Now there is something I read actually that was helpful for this. You can practice the art of doing things without thinking about the work of doing it like when there’s something small, let’s say there’s a piece of thrash in the ground and normally you’re like “Nah, I’ll pick that up in a little bit.” If you train yourself to immediately pick that up and address it that will translate over to doing bigger things where you don’t hesitate before doing it and that can be a way to make this easier.

Anthony: Your dad gave us a lesson about that.

Ryan: Did he?

Anthony: Last time he was up here.

Ryan: What did he say?

Anthony: He says “Touch it once.”

Ryan: Is that what he said?

Anthony: Yeah. You remember? All these life lessons he had been giving us.

Ryan: I’ve been hearing these life lessons for a long time.

Anthony: He’s Dr. Debell Senior, talks about he doesn’t open mails, he hasn’t do anything if ever he has to do it again so basically it’s his version of saying like “I’m just gonna commit to this if I’m going to do it.”

Ryan: If I were to open the mail, I’m gonna open it. I’m gonna sort it. I’m gonna put it where it needs to go. And I’m gonna be done with it.

Anthony: Exactly. I mean that’s about distractions and even so like that. The same thing with the first fear is like just get to it and get started and do it and get it done.

Ryan: It was pretty amazing when we were talking to him about these kind of stuff he was like “Oh yeah. I’ve been doing that for thirty five years .”

Anthony: We had this huge revelation like “We’re gonna be writing on paper everyday.” He says “What the hell are you talking about? I’ve been using this yellow pad for forty years.”

Ryan: “For the last forty years I’ve been writing down the beginning of the day, the things that I need to get done immediately on this yellow piece of pad and I scratch it off as I work through it and I start writing in the morning and start getting it done.”

Anthony: We are like uncovering all these ancient wisdom.

Ryan: I mean that’s why I guess he’s successful.

Anthony: It’s like um.. Like Paleo stuff “Oh these guys used to just eat things that grow.” It’s like “Oh to be successful you stuff the right one down and do it.”

Ryan: We’re like the same thing too. I was like “Oh you know if you bend and move your body this way it’s like good for you.” It’s like yoga’s been around for like five thousand years so I’m pretty sure people were doing this for a long time before the internet.”

Anthony: You should just work out like how you would move things around outside.

Ryan: What’s old is new and what new is old.

Anthony: Yeah so anyways, to take action…

Ryan: Yes. What you should do is on either on a piece of paper or you use spreadsheet for this, write down the night before what two things do I need to get done tomorrow that aren’t just like answering email, tweet.

Anthony: Things that you don’t wanna do.

Ryan: Things that are, you don’t wanna do but need to get done to push the ball forward, to move the needle forward. And then guess what? The next step after that is to freakin’ do it.

Anthony: Do work.

Ryan: Do the work.

Anthony: Eat the frog.

Ryan: And then in the meantime, you can train yourself by doing small tasks without hesitation around, the like you wouldn’t necessarily do. Like here’s a good one, “I make my bed everyday. Every morning I make my bed.” You know what I think to myself, Anthony? I look at it and I go. This is an opportunity to train myself to do something I don’t wanna do with little friction , with little resistance. So I just I go, I just start making it. That’s one of the things that has helped me.

Anthony: Eat that frog.

Ryan: Eat that frog. Get.

Anthony: After.

Ryan: It!

Ryan: Thank you guys for tuning in to this episode of the Health Fit Business podcast. If you found it helpful, please share with someone that you think it would also help and leave us a five-star rating on iTunes. Make sure also to go to healthfit.biz and sign up for the email notifications to which you can find right on the homepage so that you get all the updated podcasts and blog posts sent directly to you. Until then, we will see you next time.

End.

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