I’ve been sitting on this column for a while and the irony is uncanny. This week is all about eating your frogs. Now first let me tell you a story from my university days that will give you context as to what your frogs are and why you’d want to eat them.
My basketball coach in university, who we fondly know as Sem, is the person who taught me to eat my frogs. She is an incredible lady and was a mentor for the 5 years I played at UBCO here in Kelowna.
Photo credit: Darren Hull
Some of you reading this know her and you will know the profound depth of her kindness & her ability to connect with you — there was a fine line between playing on her team and being a part of her family. This was one of the best chapters of my life and I owe a lot of that to her.
When you play on a varsity team you learn a lot of life skills and you learned them quick. Managing your time between practice and classes, studying & doing your homework on the bus or plane or hotel room, being responsible in social & public settings, getting enough sleep, fuelling your body for training + games, learning how to be a great teammate and leader and someone who gives back to the community is just scratching the surface of what was expected of us.
Photo credit: Pinterest
At the beginning of the week before a weekend away or at the end of the week before a weekend off, Sem would bring us together at the end of practice and say to us “eat your frogs.” When I was in first year, I probably looked very confused and had no idea what she meant. As time went on, I understood.
Frogs have that croaking, ‘ribbet’ noise that they use day or night and you know they are there. You know how constant that sound is when you’re trying to sleep and the window’s open and that’s all you can hear? We all have 'life to-do’s' that are in our mind constantly and if we get them done and off our plate we make more clear headspace.
Photo credit: Darren Hull
We quiet the frogs in our life by getting the things done that we know we need to do. We eat the frogs in our life by doing what we say we’re going to do. This is all to sleep better, have more mental capacity, to feel alive and not feel dragged down or consistently behind the eight ball.
Frogs could look like doing your laundry, cleaning out your closet, scheduling that therapy appointment, booking yourself into yoga or spin or your favourite workout that you’ve been skipping for too long. It could look like answering that email you haven’t replied to in 2+ weeks. It could look like going to bed on time or putting your phone away at 7pm.
There are all sorts of frogs. Make sure you eat them. This column was a frog for me and here you go! I hope you enjoy; anything you’d like to hear about, feel free to email me holla@rozhuber.com.
Roz.
