Pardon My French – Just Do It!

For week ten in Scribbled Lives, we were asked to create letters using a French Curve. Great idea, except that I had never used or seen a French Curve. It is that wonky, curved tool thing-ma-bob used in Architecture, Fashion, and Landscape Design. I was stumped. I didn’t want to buy a French Curve (as I had no desire to own one) so I went to the next best thing….Google! I found one I could print out, then used it by tracing with a light table. I created the word at the bottom using the curve, then in small letters I wrote the only French words I know – French Toast, French Fry, French Braid, French Curve. I finished the piece by creating toile wallpaper above it. I did this to channel my inner French creative person…and in no way do I ever feel that my inner, creative self is French. I titled the piece – Pardon My French.

What do you do when you are given an assignment that you do not like, do not want to do, yet have no choice but to do the work? It’s the chore you hate doing, the expense report you complete begrudgingly, a financial review you continually reschedule, an unwanted goal setting session or the school meeting you dread attending. Life is filled with unwanted to do items, yet that’s life!

I shared my frustration with this prompt to the group, hoping that my humor would help me swallow the bitter pill. By making fun of myself it worked. A majority of the group also experienced frustration, hated using the tool AND also produced work they did not like. I think we all bonded as we shared our frustrations and realized we were not alone. Good news is, no one dropped out or avoided doing the work. I think that says a lot for the artists in the group. We didn’t sign up to like every prompt; we joined the group to be challenged and push ourselves. It helped to know that everyone had a similar experience.

To progress as people we have to do things we do not like, don’t know how to do and maybe even dread working through. This means we can only avoid doing our expense report for so long until our name appears on THAT list and we are strongly reminded to get the report done. (Tip here – getting your name out there by being on THAT list is NOT the way to grow your personal brand.) Being stubborn, willful, obstinate, even lazy will eventually lose the trust of people involved and make them question your ability to be trusted with other more important things.

Sometimes you just have to do that thing. Just buckle down and do it. Get it done. Stop letting it hang over your head…just do the work! The sooner you start the sooner it will get done; and the sooner you can stop feeling bad about yourself because you have been avoiding the thing you have to do. Like using a French Curve to make letters you know you won’t like. So I did the work, while channeling my inner French cuss words *&($%#!!! Pardon my French… – Just Do It!!!