Thursday, May 19, 2016

Procrastination: 1 More day with the frogs!

By Virginia Mburu

“One appeared.........

 And then another. Many others….Suddenly there were frogs everywhere.

Tiny ones, small ones, big ones, giant ones- name it. They occupied every space leaving no sitting, standing, sleeping space not even eating space. 

The adults were perplexed, the children’s cries could be heard from every corner not to mention the cacophony of animal cries. Something had gone seriously wrong! What was going on?”, the narrator asked.

At this juncture,  Mwakazi walked into the living room to find his   children Waridi and Jabali  watching the popular Kids TV program. So engrossed were they that they did not even pay attention to his entry. “That is not funny”, He said to himself as he sat in his favorite spot and poured himself a cup of tea.

Not a single child who was in the TV studio audience raised a hand to answer that question. They actually seemed rather afraid. Mwakazi reckoned they must have been imagining how the situation must have been like. “Awful, pretty awful.” 

The narrator continued......The broadcasting stations were “breaking news” and showing pictures of the “frog invasion”. The city streets, the farms, the forests even the Kings Palace! The children gasped. “And then the King was asked to decide when he wanted the frog invasion to end. Would you like to know what the king said? The narrator asked.  “YES YES YES”, the children responded in unison. 

"Tommorrow”! 
“What!!! Another day with the frogs?”   Mwakazi shouted attracting his children’s attention. Just then, the TV went off.  “NOOOOOOOOOOO, What is going on” asked Jabali.  “Black out” replied Waridi. 

“Daddy” why did the King say “TOMORROW”? Why another day with the frogs? asked Jabali.  “How were they to cook, eat, sit, sleep, work with all those frogs?” Waridi asked. Mwakazi had no answers to these questions.

Pendo (his wife) walked in and the children started narrating the story and posed the same questions as they had asked their Dad. 

In the meantime, he was digesting the story and then it occurred to him how often we also willingly spend another day, weeks, months, even years with frogs.

“Jabali”, “Yes Dad”, Jabali responded with annoyance as they had not got the answers they wanted from MUM. “When are you doing your homework?”  “Tomorrow," Jabali replied. “Tomorrow?” exclaimed Pendo and Waridi. “So you want to spend another day with the homework frog?” Dad asked.

“What kind of frogs do we encounter in our day to day lives?”  asked Dad, breaking the silence.

Mama Jabali spoke first- “I actually have delayed preparation of our BIZ MUMS CHAMA accounts. I have been procrastinating this exercise for the last three weeks and our meeting is due in a week!”

“And you Waridi?”   She is hesitant to speak as Mum looks at her. “ Eh eh eh  I…. I also have not cleaned my bedroom” 

“And I am off to the gym”, Dad retorts as they all scuffle to do away with the frogs.

As Mwakazi works out in the gym, his minds wanders to his business- Makao Interior Designers. The entrepreneurial bug bit him when he was working with a leading interior design company.  He felt the need for more freedom to exploit his passion and have more freedom to pursue personal interests. Five years down the line, there seems to be a mega frog invasion over there.

“How do we end up with all these frogs?”  Mwakazi wonders

As the work out gets more intense, so does his analysis.  “One by one, day by day”. He thinks about those tasks in his IN tray. Some have been there for days, weeks, months.....

Analysing  each of those tasks, he realizes that some of them have been lying there for so long because 
  • He does not like doing them,
  • He is not good at some, 
  • They are not critical to his passion,
  • He is spending too much time sorting problems, firefighting  etc. 
“I will get rid of all those frogs starting now. I have not had some Family Time in a long while. Time to go” 

Over to YOU- Passionate Entrepreneur; 

  • Which frogs are you spending your personal, family, social and working days with?  
  • What do you plan to do with these frogs?  

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below 

Whatever you do, make sure it results in less work, more money and positive impact.

Update



Virginia Mburu
Passionate Entrepreneurs Coach
Virginia empowers and motivates Passionate Entrepreneurs to realize their purpose and pursue it. She then assists the entrepreneurs to clarify, prioritise and focus on management and marketing strategies and action plans that will get them to work less, make more money and positively impact within one year.  Download some of her gifts- absolutely free lessons on www.biasharacoach.blogspot.co.ke


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