Eat That Frog!
Brian Tracy
Berrett-Koehler Publishers; $14.95

An oldie but goodie, Eat That Frog! uses the metaphor of tackling your hardest item on your to-do list, aka the frog, first thing in the day. Motivational speaker Brian Tracy outlines 21 suggestions to stop procrastinating and get more done. Some of the ideas include setting the table, i.e., being clear on what you want to accomplish; taking it one oil barrel at a time, i.e., one step at a time; and getting out of the technology time sinks. Each chapter concludes with action steps to Eat That Frog! While many of the ideas are not new, it is a good reminder about what we can do to be responsible for our own results.

Mark Twain has been quoted as saying,

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day,” and

“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.” (In actuality, the original quote goes back to Nicolas Chamfort, who lived in the 1700s.)

So why do I suggest starting your day, your breakfast, with a frog? We all have lots on our “to do” list, and I am sure I am not the only one who will look for the easy project first.

The idea with starting with the frog is to get the big item done first, the one that might scare you, the one that you would usually put off, the one that probably has the biggest impact in your business. I think we keenly know this as procrastination!

I’m putting out a challenge right now. Look for the frog and do that first.

Look at it as the start of a new habit. Let me know what your frog is and how eating the frog first works for you.

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Last week my eldest niece graduated from high school. An honor student, she plans to attend the University of Wisconsin in the fall. I am crushed that she will be so far from home; yet I know she will flourish there. As I was taking part in all the festivities over the weekend, I thought about some of what I learned from her.

1. Set goals and work to achieve them. She is a very goal-focused young woman and persevered to accomplish those goals, whether that was achieving high marks or working to improve her times on the cross country team or completing a quilt to hang in my guild’s show.
2. Keep balance in your life. She wasn’t an all-school and no-fun kind of girl. I saw plenty of videos she created with her friends and cousins to know that she found something outside school that challenged her and brought joy into her life. And, as required for graduation in our county, she took part in community service activities.
3. Celebrate your achievements. She had a list of ways to celebrate the diploma – an afternoon in DC after graduation, a graduation night dinner, another celebration dinner on Saturday, and joining her mom on an overseas business trip later in June.
4. Be grateful. First thing Sunday morning, she sent us all a text thanking her family  for being there to help her celebrate this achievement and for supporting her along the way.
5. Keep a sense of humor. In the text she thanked us for being in the first 17.667 years of her life and wishing we will be there for the next 17.667, which would bring her to 35.334.

I know lots of you have family graduations around this time. What did you learn from your graduate? Leave a reply below, or log onto to Facebook and leave a comment.

This seems to crop up every once in a while in my life and those of my clients: the inability to stay focused and get done what needs to be done. It can be because you are distracted by other options, whether that’s the other stuff in the room or another great idea that is beckoning.

Yes, you, too, are infected with Bright Shiny Object Syndrome. I have been there. Sometimes in my office I get totally distracted by the projects I want to make or the books/tools that just arrived or the idea I have for a new product or all the blogs that call me to tour them. How do you get past this? Here are a few ideas:

1. Take a break. Right now you could be overwhelmed rather than just distracted. This could be an hour or it could be a few days for yourself. The work will still be there.
2. Remember your “why.” What is your purpose and how is what you want to accomplish leading you in that direction?
3. Prioritize what needs to be done. Prioritize by what projects/objects will provide you with the best return on your investment, (i.e., what will bring money into your business.) This is often what it will take to focus.
4. Write down the distraction in your planner or idea notebook. I have a notebook or journal where I track what is going on in my business and it is filled with ideas. If I write it down there, it gets it out of my mind and I can go back to focusing where I should be.
5. Clean up your environment so the objects are not in front of you. If you are working on your computer, shut down your email and your Internet browser, so they won’t distract you.
6. Work in a different environment. When I get ready to proofread The Professional Quilter, I do this on the porch in nice weather and the living room in colder weather. The living room does not have lots of BSOs – other than the kaleidoscope collection, which I am not sure why I can avoid it. When I suggested that one of my clients look for a spot to work without distractions, she zeroed in on her dining room and quickly got all her work done. Find the space that will work for you, whether it is a different room in your home or even the local library or coffee shop.
7. Schedule time for BSOs. If you know you will be distracted by that blog tour in the middle of the day, schedule it for later in the day or the weekend. That way you will enjoy it, and you won’t feel guilty about not getting your work completed.

How do handle all the bright shiny objects that call you during the day? Please share your ideas below.

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This past Friday I gave the keynote at the Studio Art Quilt Associates Conference. I had a great time connecting — and reconnecting — with so many talented artists. My talk was titled “Starving Artist No More: 7 Steps to a Profitable Creative Arts Career.”As the title suggests, I spent a lot of time talking about your mindset. One of my slides included a favorite quote from Mika Brezinski on knowing your value, which I will share below. From my experience working with creative entrepreneurs, I often find they struggle with determining a value for their work and then charging for it. Here are some tips for dealing with worth.

Over the weekend I was working on the content for our Creative Arts Business Summit and thinking about the 36 women and men who are joining me this year. A wave of gratitude came over me, and I reflected how fortunate I am that they are trusting me to guide them for three days. They are all blessings in my life.

When was the last time you sat and reflected on your blessings? When you take the time to focus on what you are grateful for, you will find more happiness in your life. You’ll also begin to see more of what you are grateful for show up in your life. You will find yourself more resilient and even less stressful. Positivity all around!

Here are four tips for adding a gratitude practice to your life:

1. Keep a gratitude journal. At the end of each day write down three things that you were grateful for during the day. They do not have to be big. They can be as simple as watching the sunrise or the extra cookie someone left for you or the laugh from watching your kitten chase the ball of yarn. Periodically go back and read what you have written.
2. Set aside a few minutes every morning to hold a silent gratitude session. Think about what you are grateful for. Think about those people you are grateful for.
3. As you go through your day, look for times you can say, “Thank You,” and do so. These can be little gestures. It makes a difference to you and the other person.
4. If you think of someone and the difference they have made in your life, take time to call or write and let them know.

Here’s one of my favorite quotes about gratitude:

If the only prayer you say in your life is ‘thank you,’ that would suffice
Meister Eckhart

Do you have a gratitude practice? Please share.

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A lot of us have problems getting things finished. Several reasons come to mind: procrastination, the need to be perfect, distractions by other things, failure to prioritize. Here are eight tips for exercising what I call your “done” muscle.

1. Get clear about what it is that you are trying to accomplish. Once you have clarity around your goals and/or a particular project, it is much easier to move forward. As you work, keep your eye on the prize. This will help you progress.

2. Break your project down into manageable tasks. When you look at a goal or a specific project, it can seem overwhelming. If you can break it down into bite-size pieces, it is always easier to see how you can accomplish it.

3. Look for where you need help. Just because you have a big project, does not mean that you need to do it all yourself. Remember, it is not necessary to know how to do everything, just what needs to be done.

4. Prioritize what needs to be done. This can apply to a specific project or your daily “to do” list. It is easy to look for the quick and uncomplicated things to do each day so you can check them off the list. The problem is you are not really accomplishing what you need to accomplish. What you should be doing is tackling those projects that move you towards completing your goal.

5. Consider the ROI. That’s Return on Investment. You can look at your tasks and see if time spent doing these tasks is worth your time. Maybe you should delegate the tasks or not even do them at all.

6. Finish what you start. Make that your goal. Really look around at how many people actually finish what they set out to do. Many people say they are going to do something and do not ever complete it.

7. Remember good enough is often good enough. Sometimes we spend so much time aiming for perfection that we don’t accomplish our goals.

8. Don’t over-think everything. As the Nike ad says, “Just do it.”

If you have a tip for exercising your “done” muscle, please share it on the blog.

Do you work on your business or in your business? I recently started re-reading The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber.

The premise is that we cannot grow our business if we spend all our time doing the work in the business; i.e., being the technicians or doers. We have to learn and utilize management and entrepreneurial skills to build the business. Your goal should be to have your business work for you, not you working for it.

So, is all your time spent “doing” the business?

Here are four ways to strive toward working on your business:

1. Develop a clear vision about the path your company will take. This clarity is critical for you and for any people that you hire, whether full-time or on a project basis.
2. Take time to work on your business. I have heard from numerous quilters in business – longarm quilters to commission art quilters – that you need to spend two-to three hours marketing your business for every hour you spend fabricating your art. The best approach here is to set aside the time that works for you to do this. It could be three hours every morning or it could be every Monday and Tuesday. And sometimes you need to try working on your business in a different surrounding. I have a friend who goes to the local café each week to work on her business. The goal is set a time consistently to do this.
3. Look for ways to create systems in your business. This could be anything from a system to contact potential buyers to a system to process orders. Systems make a difference in how much time you don’t spend as a technician or doer.
4. Work on yourself. In addition to spending time working on your business, you need to work on yourself. The late Jim Rohn said, “Work harder on yourself than you do on your job. The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become.” And, who you become as a person spills over into your business.

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475 Tax Deductions for Businesses and Self-Employed Individuals
Bernard B. Kamoroff, CPA
Taylor Trade; $18.95

This book in its previous edition as 422 Tax Deductions has been one of my annual favorite resources when it come time to do my taxes. Sure I use an accountant, but I have to pull the information together for him. I expect him to understand tax law; I can’t expect him to understand all the nuances of my business. This book helps me be sure that I have got all the deductions I am entitled to use. Topics are listed in A-to-Z order and I review them each year. The author also has a sense of humor. Just check out his list of emergency rations to deduct. One of the bonuses of the book is that it is updated annually to keep up with tax law changes, and you can get a free update through the book’s website. Plus, the book’s cost is tax deductible.

Look for the book at your local quilt shop or book retailer. Here’s a link to Amazon if you would like to learn more about the book.

Are you really going back to look at the magazines you have stacked in the corner of your bookshelf?

I know from where I speak. I used to have a huge stack of magazines, some read, some waiting to be read. Sure they had great designs in them. Problem was when I wanted to be inspired I had way too many magazines to look through.

So I didn’t.

How about you? What does your stack of unread magazines look like?

All those magazines just take up space in our environment and at the same time rob us of something we really need, like energy to do our work.

So what to do about that stack that you have that just keeps getting bigger? Here are some ideas:

1. When the magazines first come in, take a quick look through the contents. Neatly tear out the ones you want to refer to again. Store the articles in a folder or binder.
2. Create an inspiration journal and save particular designs in it.
3. If you can’t bear to tear into the magazine or don’t have time to really read something, put a sticky note on the cover and mark the pages with content you need to read. After you’re finished, file the articles to save and toss the magazine
4. Periodically go through the articles or patterns you’ve saved. You may find your tastes have changed. That’s what I noticed, and then I just tossed what I saved. No need to save what no longer interested me.

How about the influx of mail order catalogs? I start by removing the order form. Then as I go through the catalog, if something sparks my interest, I remove that page and paper clip it behind the order form. Once I’ve finished checking out the catalog, it goes into the recycle bin. I place my order as soon as I can so I can toss the extra papers. If I find I don’t order within a short time, I just toss the papers.

Here’s a quote to motivate you to eliminate.

“One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.” Bruce Lee