Eating the frog(s)
A couple of weeks ago, I was riding in the car with Laura and listening to the radio. (Yes, we sometimes still listen to the actual radio.) The radio host shared about a holiday I’d never heard of: “Quitter’s Day.” Quitter’s Day is the second Friday of January when people are most likely to have thrown in the towel on New Year’s resolutions.
The radio host shared a quote and a challenge.
The quote: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” - Mark Twain
The challenge: Do what you dread most first thing in the day and everything else won’t seem as bad.
The quote brought back a memory for me.
While serving as missionaries in Argentina, we were blessed to be in a country with wonderful food. I would describe it as beef with a side of Italian. There was very little food I had to eat out of obligation to avoid offending my host. But, there was this one time….
It was typical in Argentina to have a “picada” as an appetizer. The “picada” was similar to a charcuterie board. The board typically included cured meat, cheese, and olives. But, on this particular visit, rather than allowing everyone to pick what they wanted from the board, the host “pre-loaded” our plates with several things including what looked like a couple of Vienna sausages. These solid white Vienna sausage-looking things were accompanied by a version of Thousand Island dressing. As soon as Laura and I saw what we later learned was canned “heart of palm,” neither of us wanted to eat it. We also knew in this situation our hosts were being very generous and would be offended if we didn’t eat it.
My strategy was simple. I would eat the frog…first thing…in as few bites as I could manage. Laura had a different strategy that I would discover later. In three to four gulps, I managed to rid my plate of the hearts of palm. As I looked down at my plate, thankful I had finished the one thing I didn’t want to eat, I discovered Laura’s strategy. On my plate sat three more hearts of palm!
To be fair, she was pregnant. But, honestly, I’m not sure there’s anything fair about her strategy. She smiled, and both of us graciously declined seconds!
I’m not sure where you are as you prepare to finish the first month of 2024. Here’s a lesson I’ve learned from Mark Twain’s frogs and Laura’s hearts of palm: In order to keep your commitments, there are going to be moments when you have to do what you don’t want to do. Twain suggested doing it first thing to get it out of the way. That’s a good strategy, but eventually, there will be a day when the frog or heart of palm can’t be eaten first. That’s when the commitment is broken. It’s that second round of heart of palm or the late night frog that do us in.
If for some reason, you’ve thrown in the towel on a commitment (reading the New Testament/Bible this year, exercising daily, reading a certain number of pages per week, writing a weekly blog, etc.), let me encourage you to pick it back up. You’re not too far behind. It may mean you have to double up on the frogs or heart of palms for a week or two, but it will be worth it. And once you’re caught up, commit to eat the frog… if not in the morning…for lunch…if not for lunch…for dinner…if not dinner…make it a nightcap. At the end of the year, you will have accomplished something most others gave up on the second Friday of January!
