Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many frogs are left on the log? This is the first question I ask my clients when they’re interested in utilizing my executive coaching services. I usually repeat the riddle two or three times. Nine times out of 10, they have the same reaction: They react with discomfort, feeling as if they will respond incorrectly, laugh nervously and tell me the answer isn’t obvious. A majority of clients will then offer a response, which is incorrect nearly three-quarters of the time. Even when they answer correctly, they’re not 100% confident why.

The “five frog” riddle provides the foundation for how I work with my clients. Many of the ideas and projects they start to execute are not new. Instead, they have been pondering them 100 to 10,000 times in the past day, month, year or even decade. The difference is now they are taking action, while the frogs did not. For too long, they have been the frog being content sitting on the log and not taking action on most of the ideas, projects, businesses and plans they have “thought’ about tackling.

If you haven’t figured out the answer by now, the answer is five. Why? Because the four frogs only ‘decided’ to jump off, they didn’t take action and do it.

As a business advisor/coach, I make sure that you take action. As your go-to guy, I hold you accountable and force you to think twice (or maybe four times) about the projects you commit to so you have the bandwidth to do one thing – and do it well: Grow your business. It seems so easy, yet so hard to execute.

Today, I want you to be a business person who takes action. It seems like those we admire or want to emulate possess this incredibly appealing quality. In our eyes, they seem to be able to do it all. Whether that’s true or not, we know that they simply take action faster than most of their contemporaries. Therefore, they get more done and have the ability to execute many projects simultaneously. As a result, it’s almost we are often blind to their failures because they are constantly trying to see what sticks. They make failure look easy, which we admire. On the other hand, most of us are scared to fail: We are afraid to invest the time and effort it takes to succeed, and oftentimes fail to execute because we anticipate failing. This vicious cycle of annoying thoughts – and habits – can be detrimental.

It’s time to end this vicious cycle once and for all. Decide that you are going to take action and push yourself further than yesterday. Take it day-by-day. Don’t worry about a year from now. You can do this.  You know you can. Don’t spend your life being the frog that never leaves the log because he spends his entire life deciding. Go for it, take action and be the frog that keeps jumping off and taking risks. Thomas Edison claimed he knew 1,000 ways not to invent the light bulb. If he had sat on a log, all of us might be sitting in the dark!

Take action and think BIG!™

Jon