How often have we had a “to do” list a mile long ?

How often have we been busy all day long and yet feel we accomplished nothing ?

How often do we realize at the end of the day that what we worked on isn’t bringing us closer to our goals or dreams?

Brian Tracy in “Eat That Frog” tells us to look at our tasks and challenges as a bunch of frogs. He then advises to eat the biggest, ugliest frog as we start our day so things have to get better.

This is a great advice and I have been following it for years.

An ugly frog sat next to my phone for years to remind me to eat my ugly frogs. One day my frog mysteriously disappeared . Maybe because the lesson had been learned.

I continue to teach this principle as I coach people .

Sometimes the frog reference confuses them.

Last night I came up with another example that may help.

I was taking the trash out after Chop Chop Lawn Care had completed our Spring yard clean up. There were three big bags of yard waste to be recycled.

A couple were PDH (pretty damn heavy). I had three bags to tackle . One about 75 pounds, another about 55 pounds and a third weighing about 30 pounds.

I had to decide how to get these to the curb. I actually paused for just a second to develop a game plan. I decided to tackle the beast first, the 55 pounder next and the easy 30 pounder last.

This only made sense to me. I knew when grunting the first bag it was only going to get better.

After moving all three bags I thought of the frog lesson I have shared so many times and sure thought this fit just as well.

Tackle the ugly frog, the heavy trash bag, the call you don’t want to make first and know the day has to get better.

Kick procrastination in the butt and eat the frog !

I always work hard on keep you informed on what is on my current reading list. My list continues to grow of “in progress’ reading. Since my last reading update very few books have been completed. Check out a detailed list of some books already on the nightstand discussed in my March 10th blog post.

As many of you know, I also run a small specialized CPA practice in the Metro Detroit area. With my last reading posting being mid-March, tax time has held me back from reading as much as I would like. Mary Ann (my wife) in late March handed me a copy of “Kill Alex Cross” by James Patterson to get my mind off work for a bit. It helped and I enjoyed an Alex Cross mystery as I always do.

On April 15th , I was gifted a copy of “Unintended Consequences” by Stuart Woods ( Stone Barrington at his best) and on the April 16th, I took a couple of hours and read it cover to cover.

Now that you know what I read to be entertained, let’s talk about a few books I have started and added to the pile on the nightstand !

1) How to Write a Book This Weekend, Even if You Flunked English Like I Did-an excellent e-book by my friend Vic Johnson. If you ever wanted to write a book, especially an e-book, this is a reference tool you can’t be without. Vic holds your hand and takes you from A-Z on how to write and promote your book. Love this one !

2) Circle Maker-Mark Batterson-This book deal with the power of prayer. I have heard great things about but just cracked the cover. I have the e-book version that comes with interactive videos as you read–a nice bonus feature.

3) The Tools-Phil Stutz & Barry Michels. This is a book about five tools that will help bring dynamic change in your life. Phil is a former prison psychiatrist and Barry a psychotherapist. As we use to say this is “heavy” stuff but is proving to be a very unique look at what drives the unconscious.

Once again the dusty titles that were discussed in March are:

1) People are Idiots and I Can Prove It-Larry Winget
2) Beautiful Outlaw – John Eldridge
3) I Am -Dr. Wayne Dyer
4) The Birth Order – Dr. Kevin Leman
5) 52 Mondays-The One Year Path to Outrageous Success & Lifetime Happiness-Vic Johnson
6) Best Practices are Stupid – Stephen Shapiro
7) Creating Magic-Lee Cockerell
8) Power Thoughts-12 Strategies to Win the Battle of the Mind-Joyce Meyer

Grab one or two of these books and start reading. Read 15 minutes minimum every day !

Maybe it is just me, but my God, I can’t believe the news lately. For years I try to avoid the news because more than 50 % of has been negative. Now, if I turn on the news, 98% of it is negative. Ethical, objective reporting is gone. Reporters are on obvious agendas to influence a position – not report the news. Sides are taken on an issue, a political agenda adopted and the viewpoint is preached. Even the weather man this Spring brings depressing news.

If I turn on a sports channel, I hear about an athletes sexual preference, religious viewpoints, how they beat up their girlfriend, found their new girlfriend or their latest DUI. Highlights from the games the night before or even sports scores are tough to come by.

From my viewpoint this is total B.S. As a matter of fact, this totally sucks . I see no effort out there to help change this vicious circle.

I hope I’m not alone on this.

Please tell me at least a handful of you understand this.

Please tell me a few of you say enough is enough.

Please tell me you are a little PO’d and ready to fight back.

Please tell me you have a few ideas.

Let me, let the world know what you think is the answer.

None of us can hang our hats on just one issue and get stuck on that issue.

We have to agree to disagree on some things and ban together on the issues we can agree on. Disagreement doesn’t mean-I HATE YOU.

We need to demand better reporting and better ethics.

I look forward to Northern Michigan small town news. Reports about the ducks that held up traffic, the new donut shop that is opening in town and the big bass little Johnny caught.

Please tell me I’m not the only who longs for this.

Please comment on what you think the “magical” answer may be !

We’re in this together !

It had been longer than I thought in updating this list. New books are read, older books are used by myself, friends and clients in new ways so changes happen. The changes are normally very subtle. A little shifting within the list and perhaps a book, maybe two added.

Three changes were made. I’ll offer a free gift to the first three people who correctly identify those changes. Email me at doug@discoveryourmissingpower.com and claim your gift!

Go to My Top 16 Books tab above and see what’s new !

I was sad to hear that Larry Wilson passed away last week. No, he was not one of the Beach Boys!

Nor was he Gahan Wilson (look him up if you must!) who has some other fame.

I never met Larry but felt I knew him after studying his book Play to Win. To say I just read it would be an understatement as his book challenges a lot of the personal development theory I had learned over the years. I did not agree with all of Larry’s conclusions but I certainly respected them.

Larry shared so many nuggets of wisdom that I liked, I had to struggle to pick just ten but here they are:

1) Create a personal purpose statement.In the corporate world they call this a mission statement. This is all about chopping done to three sentences – maximum, what YOU are all about. If you can narrow this down to one sentence—even better. I worked for days on this and the clarity was extremely valuable.

2) Playing to Win is about not playing in fear or playing it safe. Avoiding stressful situations is fear. Are “things” we avoid really that awful? Playing to Win is living life to our full potential !

3) If you choose comfort over growth, don’t be surprised if using this weak long term plan causes you to go out of business.

4) Fulfillment, unlike success is largely defined internally. Fulfillment comes from the drive to discover and live with a sense of meaning. Fulfillment is not found by chasing success, working harder or running faster. It is found by stopping and thinking differently.

5) Larry teaches a strategic learning process. It is a detailed seven step process that is a lesson in itself . My favorire process is-I cannot fail, I can only learn and grow.

6) Rather than using high energy complaining and worrying about our problems, it is much more productive getting very good at solving them. The bigger the problems are, the more we grow .

7) Stop, Challenge & Choose-Stop and think before you respond. Challenge your conclusions from multiple viewpoints and only then choose how to proceed based on the results you are seeking.

8)The Four Fatal Fears-to succeed, to be right,to be accepted and to be comfortable. Enough said. Think about these and how they apply in your life.

9) We teach our scientists to make a lot of mistakes-we call them experiments. Those mistakes often turn into the positive results we seek.

10) Larry’s Poem- I face dragons everyday
I find the courage to chase them away.
I stop, I breathe, I center, I observe;
I challenge my thinking when it’s absurd.