I’ve written in my book and here many times that breaking down big tasks into smaller pieces is a critical secret to success in all aspects of your life.
Breaking down large business goals into smaller components has gotten a great deal of play in the many business books and articles. For some reason, when it comes to personal goals—exercise and eating well, for example—breaking things down goals into smaller pieces gets far less play.
Not here.
In my book (literally and figuratively), it’s the key to real, lasting, positive change.
In my book, and when I speak, a favorite story I tell is the idea of eating the big frog first as a secret to getting past procrastination. It is a strategy that has worked for me for many years. When I “eat the big frog first”—when I tackle a difficult, often intimidating project rather than letting it sit on my to do list—the other items on my list (the small frogs) end up looking easy.
An Enhancement on the Idea
I was recently interviewed on blogtalkradio by Victor Schueller, the Professor of Positivity and Possibility (I love his “title”, and I’ll be interviewing Victor here in the not-too-distant future.) After the interview, Victor and I stayed on the phone for a while, continuing our conversation.
Victor brought up the “big frog” concept and said that our interview had inspired him to write a blog post about the fact that sometimes the big frog is too big to eat without cutting it into pieces. We brainstormed a bit about the subject and the result is a collaboration, though one where he deservedly gets all the credit: it written entirely by him, with his words and creativity, and is posted on his blog. He did a really nice job. Short and well presented, and I want to share it with you today, which I’ll do in a moment.
The discussion that he and I had reinforced everything I believe about breaking down big goals into smaller pieces. What changed was that before our conversation I hadn’t connected the “big frog” concept with the “breaking down big goals” concept.
The big frog is often something that you can tackle if you break it down into small pieces—in the case of a personal development, pieces just right for 21-day focuses to turn them into habits—changes that stick.
Click here to read Victor’s piece.
Best regards,
David
p.s. Please leave your thoughts in the comments on his site, or click back to leave comments here. I’d love it if you would join the conversation with your comments…