Eat the Frog: 10x Your Productivity With This Simple Trick
And get used to dealing with your hardest life challenges
If it ain’t something, it’s something.
This is arguably one of my favourite sayings, and a saying I repeat to my friends and family often. I genuinely believe that adulting is nothing more than dealing with a series of fires which burn and rage at various intensities. I’m not entirely pessimistic - I think life has an incredible amount of positive and transformative experiences. But I think what I actually find comforting about such a phrase is the acceptance that there’s always going to be some kind of issue to solve, or some kind of goal to work towards.
If it ain’t something, it’s something.
Problems occur when that something becomes something BIG, or that something multiples into various different somethings. All of a sudden, we’re paralysed with fear at the idea of having to clean up yet another mess. Such is the nature of adulthood. If it’s not problems in our relationships, it’s problems in our finances. If it’s not problems in our finances, it’s problems in our jobs. If it’s not problems in our jobs - it’s problems with our mental health and happiness.
You might disagree, but I genuinely think the best way to overcome such existential dread and the stress that arises from the reality of the problems we face, is to face them head on.
I used to be a massive gamer. Not a good one, mind you.
In fact, more often than not, I was resigned to the sidelines to watch my brother play video games. One of my favourites? God of War. I loved, and still loved, the escapism and flamboyant narratives of fantasy.
Based on Greek mythology, the protagonist, Kratos, was a demigod and son of Zeus who had to undertake all kinds of wild challenges to avenge the deaths of his family, and change his ultimate fate. A whirlwind of a game, what always struck me was the ‘bigness’ of the enemies Kratos faced. If it wasn’t a whole army of soldiers, it was a supernatural creature, or a Greek God he needed to slay, Kratos was given the kind of enemies to deal with that were almost as scary as your last energy bill. What struck me was that not only did we, playing Kratos, have to fight these villains at the end of every game round - it was impossible to progress without doing so.
Perhaps the reason you aren’t progressing is because you refuse to fight against the villain at the end of your current round?
Perhaps it’s time to face the final boss after all.
Key Summary (TL/DR):
What is ‘Eat the Frog’?
The Hard Thing About Hard things
Leap Into it: the Plan to Eat the Frog