How to boil a frog

Day 61 / 358

If you try to boil a frog by putting it in a pot of boiling water, you are going to have a hard time. The frog would sense the heat when you take it near the pot and would leap out of your hands. What you should do instead is to put the frog in a pot of water at room temperature then turn the heat on slowly. The frog won’t notice the small increments in the temperature of the water. By the time it realizes that the water is boiling, it will be too late.

We’ve all been that frog in a slowly boiling pot of water at some point in our lives when we have found ourselves unhappy with our lives. If you try to look back and think about what lead you to that place, you would realize it wasn’t a sudden change. It was the little things you ignored, the small bad habits that built up over time. Just like the frog, you didn’t notice until it was too late.

Well, the good news is, just like small increments in the wrong direction got you into that mess, small increments in the right direction can get you out of it as well.

Your life can be what you want it to be in a year. You just have to focus on doing the little things right. You have to have a slight edge.

You can start simple. Meditate for 2 minutes each day, or read 10 pages of a good book. Make your bed right after you wake up. Instead of the elevator, take the stairs. Instead of wasting time on youtube, listen to an audiobook or an educational podcast to pass time on your commute to work.

The steps to achieve your goals are generally easy. It’s the daily discipline to apply those steps that most people fail on. Unfortunately, that is the most important part.

So make sure that from now on you’ll make those little increments work for you and not against you. Don’t be like the frog. Be aware of the direction your life’s headed to. Jump out of the water while it's still cold.

This story is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — How bad do Mondays suck for you?