“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.”
— Mark Twain
We all want something out of life. We have goals. We have dreams. We have desires. Often, however, we find ourselves moving further away from those goals with each passing day rather than closer to them.
The problem? We don’t spend enough of our time defining the most important tasks (also known as MITs) that we need to do each day to get us closer to our goals.
When we fail to identify the MITs, we end up living in defensive mode rather than offensive mode. We spend more time just reacting to the day rather than tackling it with gusto. We get overwhelmed, upset, and by the evening, we’re too drained to do anything else.
To avoid that from happening, not only do we have to define our MITs, but we also have to tackle them first thing in the morning.
Why the morning?
In the morning we’re fresh. We’re well-reseted. We’re energetic. We’re enthusiastic about the day. Most of the region is quiet (especially if you wake up early enough) and you can focus all of your thoughts and your efforts.
To define your MITs, first you need some long-term goals. I’m going to assume that you have those in place, and that you’ve actually written them out somewhere and created a plan towards their achievement. If you haven’t done that, then rewind and do that first.
Goals that aren’t written out are just hopes. They can’t be actualized because we haven’t taken the time to make them real and concrete.
What’s more?
Goals that lack a plan are just wishes. You can’t actually achieve a goal without a plan. You’re just wishing for something when that’s the case.
So, considering you have clearly defined goals with plans, it’s time to define your MITs. How does this work exactly?
First, it’s important to note that you need three MITs per day. The MITs have nothing to do with your “regular job.” Rather, your MITs have to do with your long-term goals.
Ask yourself the following question: “What are the three most important things that I could do today that will help move me closer to my goals?”
Let’s say for a moment that you have the goal of starting your own business. You set a 12-month timeline to launch your company with the plan to quit your current full-time job then. You’ve considered that you need at least 6 months of savings as a buffer just in case things go south.
Now, all you need to do in order to define your MITs is to ask yourself what the three most important tasks that you could do to move you closer to your goal. If you have three goals, do one task per goal. If you have just one goal, then do three tasks towards it.
What if you can’t find three MITs each day? Then you’re not thinking hard enough.
Every single day, there are dozens of things that can be done to move us closer to our goals. The person that wants to launch his or her own company in 12 months needs to do thousands of things to make that goal a reality. Their job is to just pick three of the most important ones every single day.
For example, to start your own company in 12 months, you would need to save enough money or make extra income. To save money, you might consider cutting expenses and getting out of debt, but also engaging in part time work, possibly in the gig economy.
Just those objectives will be littered with hundreds of MITs. Every day, there are numerous ways to cut expenses, save money, and do part-time work in the gig economy.
But launching a business is much more than that. You need a business plan, a website, a corporate structure, a bank account, licenses, social media accounts, an SEO strategy, and so on. The list is endless.
The point?
Regardless of your goals, there are always at least three MITs you should define and tackle every single day. No matter what it is, it’s your job to locate the MITs and get them done. These will move you closest to your goals in the shortest amount of time.
Okay, okay, if you’re still having trouble, I’ve come up with a nifty little list that will help you find and define your MITs.
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