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.”

Students must learn to do the hardest parts first

Jaybird believed that when people postpone a job’s hard parts, they diminish the pleasure and sense of accomplishment that the steps toward completion of a task brings, because all along they still face those hard parts. For two decades, that wisdom served me well in college classrooms. In dealing with students, I strived to eliminate their weaknesses before improving their strengths, which required undertaking a most difficult task first: eliminating irresponsible, counterproductive mindsets that hinder learning. I observed that some college freshmen I taught believed the world owed them whatever they wanted. How wrong! The world was here first — it owes them nothing; they owe the world. God provided them skills with which to pay that debt, along with opportunities for doing so. When teachers give students what they don’t earn, they do them an injustice. Young people must be taught that earning one’s way in life is requisite to a meaningful life. Students must learn to do the hardest parts first; they must realize that winners don’t start at the top; they must accept the reality that building a strong educational foundation is one of the hardest parts of becoming an honorable, productive member of society; they must realize that in the workplace, one of the hardest parts will be completing menial responsibilities that come with the initial steps of climbing the ladder to success; they must embrace the inviolable truth that anything worth having is worth struggling for. Teachers must instill humility in students, and the certainty that an inflated view of one’s importance is bogus self-esteem. Winners are not prima donnas; they are humble, self-reliant, productive people who conquer the most difficult parts of challenges first, and in time realize that doing so provides experience that makes overcoming future challenges easier. 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.