Posts Tagged ‘Choice’
Hurry Up and Wait!
Thursday, August 5th, 2010
My father had this saying when I was growing up: “Hurry up and wait.” I would often laugh at the expression – until I had to start driving on I-95 in New York. Anyone who has driven I-95 knows that there are two speeds on this road – drag racing and dead stop. There are so many times it has taken me hours to go 13-15 miles. By now you would think I might have learned patience after 18+ years of driving on the Cross Bronx Expressway. The reality is, I still get frustrated and yell at drivers.
I am not one for sitting in traffic or waiting on lines (heck, I was born two months premature!). I will often choose to take lunch early or late so I don’t have to wait on line. So, when I went to Whole Foods for a lunch treat this week, I thought I would miss the mad rush. But there I was – standing on a long line. If you have ever been to a Whole Foods, you might appreciate the anxiety running through me. You not only have to wait on a LONG line, you have to stand in a color coded line and wait for your color to be called and told what register to go to. There’s a science to it. And finding your register when it blinks is an art – one I have not mastered.
I waited on the long line because I had bought a delicious lunch. And then I thought, “Why am in a hurry?” Other than wanting to enjoy a yummy meal, what was the big rush?
Of course, there are many other things I would rather be doing than sitting in my car in traffic or waiting on a long line in a food store, but I get to choose how I think about it. I get to listen to more CD’s in my car and meet new people while waiting on line. I even chatted with the cashier at Whole Foods as I had just seen her over the weekend. This doesn’t mean I’ll love to sit in traffic or wait on lines, but it does mean I might choose a different response to it.
What is something that teaches you to hurry up and wait?
Mary Anne
Time to Eat the Frog
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
When I first heard the phrase, Eat the Frog during a workshop with Janice Hoffmann, I was both hesitant and interested. Curious to hear more, I leaned forward to find out what Janice was talking about. Essentially, Eat the Frog means starting your day by tackling the most challenging thing on your list. Develop the habit of doing the hardest thing first – the thing you put off to the end of the day – the one that never gets done. It’s about creating space in our day to do what we love. If we put off eating the frog, it’s always there, waiting for us.
We spend so much time on smaller tasks, we run out of time to do what might need the most inspiration or energy. We multi-task in the hopes more can get done and then wonder why we feel so exhausted. There was a time being able to do ten things at once made us feel successful. But all we need to do is one task a time with full attention. Eating the frog is about performing a task that is crucial for our growth, our business, or our life, even if it is not fun. In the end, eating the frog gets us farther.
How do you prepare for your day? What do you really want to pay attention to and complete? Successful people know how to eat the frog. Entrepreneurs eat the frog every day – they take risks. Listen for the most important task, write it down, and do it. Think about the last time you wanted five more minutes of sleep or will go for that walk tomorrow – how did you end up feeling?
We tell ourselves we don’t have enough time. We may not have time for everything we want to do, but we always have enough time to do everything we choose to do.
Go ahead – Eat the Frog!
Mary Anne