Let’s face it, we all have our frogs and elephants to chew on every day.
You know… frogs and elephants. Or, in other words, those hard to swallow items on our To-Do list that are really difficult to get down no matter how we sugarcoat them and bribe ourselves with promises of dark chocolate, binge TV or name-your-mindless-vice.
By any name, they suck the joy out of a day and drain our energy. If we are smart, we eat our frogs first and take teeny-tiny bites out of our elephants and get them out of the way so we can enjoy the rest of our day. Or, maybe you are one of those other types who like to save up an entire plate of frog legs (gross) and eat them all at once. And you think nothing of locking yourself in your office on a sunny, breezy weekend and stuffing an entire elephant head down your throat.
I don’t recommend it, but I see people do it all the time.
There Is A Better Way. Have a Frog and Elephant Party.
In general, I’m not a fan of frogs or elephants as a delicacy. I don’t prefer either on my daily To-Do plate, and if I have to eat them, I do my best to never have to eat them alone. Misery loves company, and I love a cheering section. I found the secret to chewing up disgusting items on my list is to have an accountability group, a group of people all in the same frog pot as myself, where we can all eat our frogs together and cheer and whoohoo each other on when we have taken on those nasty critters.
Might as well get some celebration for my efforts, right?
But it’s More Than Just Having A Cheering Section
It turns out that our brains actually respond to the happy celebrations by releasing some of those feel-good chemicals into our bodies. It jots down a little note: She ate a frog, and a teeny-tiny bite of an elephant and then she woohoo’d with a bunch or friends and got happy for a few minutes. Remind her to do that again- it felt good.
The next day you come along, eat a frog, take a bite of an elephant, report in to your accountability group and you all celebrate the completion and you WOOHOO!!!
Your brain jots down another mental note.
If you can keep this up for a handful of days, pretty soon, when you get up in the morning, your brain is sending you a note, “Hey! Guess what? Delicious, yummy frog and elephant bite on the menu, sounds like fun right? We get to hang out with friends!” And suddenly, what used to taste like frogs and elephants doesn’t seem so bad anymore.
The power of celebrating, the power of community, the power of not being the lone ranger anymore and deciding you don’t have to do the hard stuff all by yourself.
The power of remembering that the hard stuff can still be fun when we don’t have to do it alone.
We don’t have to be Solopreneurs to be Entrepreneurs. Reach out. Eat your frogs and elephants with a friend.
Photo: Billy Dodson
