Note: This was a response to a video we were required to watch for my gender communications class. I will not link to the video, because I am merciful.
I think that the author of Eat That Frog might come to the conclusion that women procrastinate more than men simply because there aren’t more women who focus exclusively on their careers. He seems to think that if one isn’t focused on one’s career, one is failing at life; and not succeeding in your career (success being defined in a very specific way) means that one has been procrastinating. He completely disregards how outside factors have an impact on a person’s life, and I think that this is a huge failing of his advice. Yes, planning is important to completion of goals, but one can’t plan for everything. Your plans needs to be flexible, because you can’t control everything. If your plans aren’t flexible enough, you will fail regardless of how much planning you’ve done. The biggest sticking point for me regarding the author’s viewpoint that one’s career should have greater priority than personal interests (as implied in the section on “ABCDE planning”) is that there is actual research showing that having a balance between your working life and your personal life is a much healthier goal than focusing exclusively on either aspect of your life. This is true for everyone, regardless of gender.
There seems to be an unstated premise throughout the entire audio of “Eat That Frog” that discipline is something which comes as naturally to everyone as breathing; and that the same level of discipline in two different individuals will lead to the same results. This puts, in my opinion, too much blame for failure’ on the individual who is attempting to achieve a goal. One should obviously take responsibility for one’s actions and goals, but one should also be aware of the things which are out of your control. It comes down to knowing your limits, and accepting that sometimes you aren’t going succeed--not because you didn’t plan well enough, not because you didn’t prioritize correctly, not because you’re a failure, but because somethings bad things happen. The idea that the only factors which matter to a person’s success are whether or not that person is capable of “long term thinking” is, in my opinion, a frankly privileged opinion which ignores the realities of living in a world where there are very real and measurable biases against people who are perceived as “other” or “inferior”. The author is implying that we live in a society in which everyone is granted equal opportunity, that the playing field is level, and that’s verifiably untrue.
The general idea of having goals and working towards those goals is certainly a sound idea, and really rather common sense. If the author had focused on exploring techniques to improving your goal setting, and had spent some time exploring research on how to best work towards your goals, I think his insights would have carried more weight. As it stands, I’m expected to take the advice of someone who’s only credentials are “This is what worked for me.” While I’m sure these methods did work for him, and would work for others who are like him, one-size-fits-all tips don’t sit well with me. The world is messy and complicated, and alliterative mnemonics and “7 Simple Steps” don’t address or acknowledge how messy and complicated life can be.
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