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Good Morning. Here is a great thought for the day:

Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long. Your "frog" is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don't do something about it. It is also the one task that can have the greatest positive impact on your life and results at the moment.

The first rule of frog eating is this: If you have to eat frogs, eat the ugliest one first.

This is another way of saying that if you have two important tasks before you, start with the biggest, hardest, and most important task first. Discipline yourself to begin immediately and then to persist until the task is complete before you go on to something else.

Think of this as a test. Treat it like a personal challenge. Resist the temptation to start with the easier task. Continually remind yourself that one of the most important decisions you make each day is what you will do immediately and what you will do later, if you do it at all.

The second rule of frog eating is this: If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn't pay to sit and look at it for very long.

The key to reaching high levels of performance and productivity is to develop the lifelong habit of tackling your major task first thing each morning. You must develop the routine of "eating your frog" before you do anything else and without taking too much time to think about it. Successful, effective people are those who launch directly into their major tasks and then discipline themselves to work steadily and single-mindedly until those tasks are complete.

Take Action Immediately

Develop the Habits of Success

Whenever you complete a task of any size of importance, you feel a surge of energy, enthusiasm, and self-esteem. The more important the completed task, the happier, more confident, and more powerful you feel about yourself and your world.

The third rule of frog eating is this: Don't try to swallow the biggest frog whole.

You have heard the old question, "How do you eat an elephant?" The answer is "One bite at a time!"

How do you eat your biggest, ugliest frog? The same way; you break it down into specific step-by-step activities and then you start on the first one. Eat it one bite at a time.

The completion of an important task triggers the release of endorphins in your brain. These endorphins give you a natural "high". The endorphin rush that follows successful completion of any task makes you feel more positive, personable, creative, and confident.

The fourth rule of frog eating is this: Never be distracted by a tadpole when there's a frog on your plate. Prioritize!

You cannot eat every tadpole and frog in the pond, but you can eat the biggest and ugliest one. Simply say no thanks to anything, any task, or anyone who is not a high value of your time and your life. Elbert Hubbard defined success as "the ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not." So eat that frog! What are you waiting for?

Have a wonderful day.

"Each morning is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When the sun rises tomorrow this day will be gone forever, in its place will be something you have left — may it be something good. Follow your heart, it knows what to do."

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