I could not make myself clean that one closet, mainly because there was just so much stuff in it and also because I knew there was a lot of the kid's stuff in there as well. (Spoiler Alert: Your kiddos will leave your house but they don't take all their stuff with them!)
Long story short, I had to bargain with myself to get started on this project of cleaning out all the spaces in our home, and I knew it had to begin in that one closet--I had to do the hard thing first! So, I told myself (I talk to myself a lot, not always verbally, but sometimes verbally) you are just going to take 7 things out of that closet every day until you're done. So, that's exactly what I did. I started with 7 things. And the next day, 7 more things. The following day, 7 more things. It took me about a week of taking 7 things out every day (that's 49 things if I do my math right) and finally I had the motivation to complete the job in that one space. The rest of the house was a piece of cake!
Cleaning out rooms, closets, cabinets, and drawers all seems so very trivial when I know a lot of you, and many of my friends, had much more challenging hard things to do in 2020. However, even from this trivial task, I learned some valuable lessons.
4 Things I Learned From Doing The Hard Thing First:
There are many biblical characters we can draw from as good examples of having to do hard things. Immediate ones that come to my mind are:
Hard things come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. We are all called to do hard things from time to time. When you have a choice, do the hard thing first. It will make the other tasks much easier.
Combating the idea of adolescence as a vacation from responsibility, Alex and Brett Harris weave together biblical insights, history, and modern examples to redefine the teen years as a launching pad for life and a roadmap with a clear trajectory for long-term fulfillment and eternal impact.
Written by teens for teens, Do Hard Things is packed with humorous personal anecdotes, practical examples, and stories of real-life rebelutionaries in action. This rallying cry, from the heart of revolution already in progress, will challenge your teen to lay claim to a brighter future, starting today. Now featuring a conversation guide, 100 real-life examples of hard things tackled by other young people, and stories of young men and women who have taken the book’s charge to heart, Do Hard Things will inspire a new generation of rebelutionaries.
Who comes to your mind first when you think of biblical characters who did hard things?
4 Comments
Fabulous post! I so often put off things as you mentioned and talk to myself a lot in the process. But doing that hard thing first makes all the difference. Mark Twain said, "If you have to eat a frog, do it first thing in the morning". His way of saying do the hard thing first.
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4/24/2021 06:40:42 am
Thank you, Donna. Our pastor just quoted that Mark Twain quote in a sermon a couple of weeks ago. Funny you should mention it!
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Patsy, Usually doing the hard thing first helps me tremendously. It helps me in writing and presentations; if I don’t start with the hard, I never get to the easy.
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4/28/2021 03:06:33 pm
This is so good! I tend to put a time limit on myself when I'm faced with a hard thing, because we can all do almost anything for 10 minutes, right? It's the equivalent of you pulling 7 things from the closet (which for the record, cleaning that closet was definitely a hard thing!). And I'm with you: kids don't take their stuff with them when they leave. :) We have to pack it up and hand it to them later. lol.
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