Eat That Frog-3rd of my 15 Books to Read

“There just isn’t enough time for everything on our “TO DO” List- and there never will be.  Successful people don’t try to do everything.  They learn to focus on the most important tasks and make sure they get done.”-Brian Tracy

As a motivation to do my reading goal, I challenge myself to blog each book I read to share some insight and to point out some remarkable quotes and statement in each book. Book report, in short. Haha!

My 3^rd book is the International Bestseller “Eat that Frog”-by Brian Tracy.  The author is a professional speaker, trainer and consultant.  He is a self-made millionaire. Also a best-selling author of many books, including Maximum Achievement, Focal Point and the 100 Absolutely Unbreakable laws of Business Success.

This book is actually not on my list because the title implies time management.  I am very confident with it.  I know how to prioritize priority.  Being a working mom is not an easy task and I was able to manage my time for about ten years now. 

Until, I realized that I’m approaching to mid-life(no! no!no!) and facing such crisis.  May mga bagay na dapat ginagawa ko pero hindi ko na nagagawa dahil sa dami ng gusto kong gawin. Huh?!! So I picked this book and hoping that it will help me a more.

Since it’s a small book I finished it in one night only.  I got interested with how Brian Tracy laid down twenty-one great ways to stop procrastinating and get more things done faster.

Let me share to you what I’ve learned from this book.  Here are my favorite statements that wakes me up and keeps me motivated to be more productive and efficient.

1.     The Power of a Written Goal

The author’s advice: Decide exactly what are your goals.  Write it down.  Set a deadline and make a list of everything you have to achieve your goals.  Organize the list into a plan.  Take action.  Resolve to do something that moves you toward your major goal.

2.     Plan Everyday in Advance

“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.”-Alan Lakein

Brian Tracy said, I should practice the Six-P Formula everyday. 

                    "Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance"

The first 10% of time that you spend in planning can save as much as 90% of the time in getting your job done.

3.     Focus on Activities, Not Accomplishment

Author’s advice: Give attention to the most valuable tasks and do it first during the day and all low valuable tasks can be done easy pessy or maybe not need to be done at all.

4.     Long-term thinking improves short-term decision making

“Losers try to escape from their fears and drudgery with activities that are tension-relieving.  Winners are motivated by their desires toward activities that are goal-achieving.”-Denis Waitley

5.     Set priorities and posteriorities

Author’s advice: “Cut down television watching and instead spend the time with your family, read, exercise or do something else that enhances the quality of your life.”

6.     “The first law of success is concentration- to bend all the energies to one point, and to go directly to that point, looking neither to the right nor to the left.”-William Matthews

According to the author, take action immediately.  Eat the whole frog and don’t stop until it’s finished completely.

7.     Poor Performance produces Procrastination

Author’s advice: Make a habit of doing analysis regularly for the rest of your career.  Never stop improving.  This decision alone can change your life.

8.     Work all the Time you Work

“Keep your life balance”, Brian Tracy said.  It’s the quality of time at work that counts and the quantity of time at home matters.  By not working effectively and efficiently during workday, you create unnecessary stress and deprive the members of your family of the very best person you can possibly be.

9.     Launch towards your Dreams

Author’s advice: Get started.  Do the first thing.

The biggest enemies we have to overcome on the road to success are not lack of ability and a lack of opportunity but the fears of failure and rejection and doubts that they trigger.  So to overcome the fears “do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain”-Emerson

10. Take it one step at a Time

Author’s advice: A great life or a great career is built by performing one task at a time, quickly and well and then go to the next. 

Financial independence is achieved by saving a little money every single month, year after year.  Health and fitness are accomplished by just eating a little less, exercising a little more, day after day and month after month.

11. Never stop Learning

According to the author, upgrading your skills is one of the most important personal productivity principles of all.  Learn what you need to learn so that you can do your work in an excellent fashion. Everything is learnable.  And what others have learned, you can learn as well.

“The more you learn and know, the more confident and motivated you feel.  The better you become, the more capable you will be of doing even more in your field.  The more you learn, the more you can learn.  Just as you can build your physical muscles through physical exercise, you can build mental muscles with mental exercises.  And there is no limit to how far or how fast you can advance except for the limits you place on your imagination.”

12. Do what you Love to Do

Author’s advice: You should always focus your best energies and abilities on starting and completing those key tasks that your unique talents and abilities enable you to do well and that make a significant contribution.  You cannot do everything, but you can do few things in which you excel, the few things that can really make a DIFFERENCE.

13. Identify your key Constraints

The author said: In your own life, you must have the honesty to look deeply into yourself for the limiting factor or limiting skill that sets the speed at which you achieve your own personal goals.   Keep asking, “What sets the speed at which I get the results I want?”

14. Put the Pressure on Yourself

Author’s advice:  Always look for the ways to go the extra mile, to do more than you are paid for.

15. Overworking Can Mean Underproducing

Author’s advice:  The more you tried you become, the worse the quality of your work will be and the more mistakes you will make.  At a certain point, you can reach “the wall” and simply be unable to continue, like a battery that is run down.

16. Develop Positive Mental Attitude

Author’s advice:  You should talk to yourself positively all the time to boost your self-esteem.  Say things like “I like myself! I like myself!” over and over until you begin to believe it and behave like a person with a high-performance personality.

17. Get out of the Technological Time Sinks

His advice: For you to calm, clearheaded, and capable of performing at your best, you need to detach on a regular basis from the technology and communication devices that can overwhelm you if you are not careful.

18. Develop a compulsion to Closure

He said: The bigger the task you start and complete, the better and more elated you feel.  The bigger the frog you eat, the greater the surge of personal power and energy you experience.

19. Make every minute count

“Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all of your energies on a limited set of targets.”- Nido Qubein

20. Do it Now

His advice: “If you feel yourself slowing down or becoming distracted by conversations or low-value activities, repeat to yourself the words “Back to work! Back to Work! Back to work!” over and over again.

21. Self-Discipline is the Key

He said: Success in any area requires tons of discipline.  Self-discipline, self-mastery and self-control are the basic building blocks of character and high performance.

This book is for my husband.  He’s the one who really needs author’s advice. 

My best learning is how to FOCUS.  Be motivated and goal oriented.

Sacrifice now and success later!