Dogs are fascinated by the most random things.

Penny, our 15-pound King Charles Cavalier, is obsessed with eating small bugs (I know it’s weird). One afternoon on the back porch, she locked eyes with a tiny beetle crawling across the deck. She beelined it, like a bull spotting red.

But then something funny happened. When she got close, she paused. Then she retreated. What could have been eaten in half a second was suddenly a source of fear. Unsure of its tiny powers, she danced around it. She pawed at it a few times, testing whether it would fight back. But she never went in for the snack.

That's not just a dog story. That's most of us, most mornings.

There's a productivity book called Eat the Frog. The idea is simple. Your most important, most difficult task of the day is the frog. Your job is to eat it first, before anything else gets your attention.

Because here's what happens when you don't: You wait, and the task stays the same size, but your dread of it grows. The task never gets bigger. Only your imagination of it does. The longer you stare at the beetle, the more it starts to look like something scary and something you should avoid.

Penny walked away from hers. You don't get to.

So what are you going to knock out first thing this morning?

P.S. The Optimistic Outlook is a Podcast! Leaving a rating or review wherever you listen to podcasts would mean a lot.