During my teaching career, my New Year’s resolution was to teach students what Jaybird taught me. When facing difficult tasks, do this first: the hardest part
One late, cold December day, my boyhood best friend and mentor, the beloved old black man everyone called Jaybird, and I were warming ourselves before his fireplace, talking about the year behind and the one to come. When I asked if he made any New Year’s resolutions, he said, “Yep, to stay alive long enough not to make any resolutions for the year after next.”
Then his tone became serious. “Boy, I’ve been watching how you work. You have a bad habit of doing a job’s easy parts first — exactly opposite of what you ought to do. Next year, I want you to do the hardest part of any job first, unless it depends on doing other parts first.”
Noticing my confusion, he continued. “People who take the easy way out always end up in the same place — out. Even worse, when they stand before the Lord on Judgment Day and He asks, “What did you do with the gifts I gave you?” and they have no answer … well, I don’t want to spend eternity where they’ll spend it.”