4. Tough Things First

It is natural for children to become difficult when its mother or some one else makes it eat something. Many a child will stubbornly refuse to take anything that's good for its health! 

I know a clever grandmother who followed an interesting strategy for making the child eat its lunch or dinner. When the child refused to eat, she would say, "Let's divide this food into two parts. Keep the part you don't like this side and the part you like on the other side." Enjoying this diversion, the child would do accordingly. After talking to the child about something else and deviating its attention for a while, the granny would say, "Quickly eat what you don't like first. Then you can enjoy the other part of the food which you like." The child would accept her suggestion and end up emptying the whole plate.

There can be two questions here:
1) How did the child agree to eat the part of food it had labelled  'don't like?'  The answer is simple. The child doesn't follow complicated instructions, but follows simple suggestions, especially when the child is given a suggestion and not a command.

2) How did I know this story? Again the answer is very simple. It was my own granny. And the child that was tricked into eating was myself! (Of course, I realized the trick played on me only several years later after developing the facility to reminisce!)

Thinking about this after I grew up, I had admired the way my granny had been taking me for a ride! I then realized that I can apply this trick in my day to day life. On any given day, we have several things to do. Some of these tasks are interesting and enjoyable and some others are not so enjoyable. 

Most of the time, people, in general, will do the easy and simple part of their plan and leave things at that stage. The consequence of this 'strategy' will be: important things are neglected while simple, convenient and interesting (and often useless and unproductive) things are done. This practice will ensure that we don't make much progress in our lives.

So, what if you can persuade yourself to do the tough and uninteresting but important task that you detest first and the enjoyable task next. With the burden of difficult task getting over, you will find doing what you like to do, even more enjoyable.

Today, I had such a situation. I had to complete two books, one an interesting novel and the other a book relating to my profession. I had to return both the books before the end of the day. I started the day with the novel but persuaded myself that I should first finish reading the other book. 

I put down the novel and forced myself to read the educational book. With the motive of completing the novel driving me from behind, I was able to read the technical book faster without losing comprehension. 

I finished it well in time affording me the time to complete the novel. My mind was free as I read the novel and I enjoyed myself much more than I would have if the need for reading the other book had been pressing me from the background. 

There is no doubt that the pleasure you get from doing something you enjoy after finishing a pressing task will be highly enhanced.

Try this today. Develop the habit of dividing any task, big or small, into two parts - one simple, easy and interesting and the other dull, uninteresting, tedious and time-consuming. Start working on the second part of the task first. Once you complete the second part, you will find doing the other part easy and interesting

So, for today, remember
1) Do the difficult part of any job first; doing the easy part will be child's pay!

2) If you have to do two or more things, do the thing(s) that you find dull first. The enjoyment you will get doing the things you like to do will be something extraordinary.