Five Frogs Sitting on a Log
I am enamoured with The Prosperous Coach. A book written by Steve Chandler and Rich Litvin.
In Chapter 68 (the chapters are fewer than 3 pages), they tell this riddle…
Five frogs are sitting on a log.
Four decide to jump off.
How many are left?
Take a moment.
Go ahead.
If you said one, you’re in good company.
That’s the obvious answer.
The math checks out. Four jump, one stays. Simple.
But the answer is five.
Because four decided to jump.
That’s all they did.
There’s a difference between deciding and doing.
Deciding Is not Doing
There’s a trap in deciding: it can feel like doing.
You actually get a neurological hit when making a decision.
There is some resolution. The brain starts to behave like it’s been handled.
It can actually reduce your drive to follow through.
The decision feels like progress.
It isn't.
Derek Sivers gave a TED talk on exactly this: “Keep your goals to yourself.”
The social acknowledgment of an intention, it turns out, satisfies part of the psychological need — which means the action itself becomes less urgent.
The brain starts to treat the decision as partial completion.
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So Relatable
I know this feeling.
I’ve had conversations where someone was right there - ready to move forward, ready to work together.
They had decided.
I didn’t help them to get to the Doing. To booking the call, making the investment.
This is an opportunity to improve.
I have a bunch of drafts of posts that I thought (at one time) were brilliant (they might still be) that I didn’t get sorted and posted. The “brilliance” still waiting for the light of day.
Decided to write, doing part of the work, but not getting it done. Not getting it posted.
The frog riddle is asking the same question:
Are you deciding, or are you doing?
The Cost of Waiting
Ever stood at the end of a dock, or on some rocks, or the side of a boat…looking down at water you intend to jump into?
You know it’s cold.
You will feel it.
It’s going to be uncomfortable.
And the longer you wait — the harder it gets to jump.
The more time you have to negotiate with yourself.
To delay.
To procrastinate.
The more time you have not doing what you intended to do.
Diminishing Intent
John Maxwell, who’s father used to tell him the Five Frogs “riddle” as a kid, named what happens next "the Law of Diminishing Intent."
The longer you wait to do something you know you should do, the greater the odds you never will.
The moment passes.
The energy dissipates.
The version of you who was ready gets slowly replaced by the version of you who had a good reason to wait.
Comfort and “safety” win again.
The Only Thing that is Doing the Thing is Doing the Thing
I wrote about this here:
The Jump Is the Thing
Not the decision to jump.
Not the intention to jump.
Not the preparation to jump.
Not talking about how cold the water might be.
Not the conversation about what it would mean to jump, or whether it’s the right time, or whether you’re ready.
The jump.
Four frogs on a log decided.
Five frogs stayed.
Don’t be a frog.
Here to Help You Jump
If you are interested in a conversation about jumping, please reach out.
I intend for such conversations to be so impactful you will remember them for the rest of your life.
This is what I am building my coaching practice around.
Learn more here. Actual website forthcoming.
Reach out here: [email protected]
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