Be the compass

We’ve all been forced to sit down, write something, and turn it in.  That’s what school taught us to do, right?  Assignment after assignment after assignment.  We learned we have to get sh*t done we didn’t want to do in the first place.

When I saw the prompt ‘compass’ I flashed back to history class, junior year.  It was one of many opportunities I learned about writing assignments I had no interested in doing.

On the surface, that assignment seemed doable.  Every writing assignment is simple, right?

Just pick up the pen or move the blinking line forward, and wallah, a masterpiece appears.

“So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself:  who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?”  – Hunter S. Thompson

As I watched others turn in papers, mine paused in suspense at home, I sat in awe.  While my efforts were pending deadline doom, I realized, some people can do it and some get lost in the writing process because that’s who they are.

I have all the sympathy in the world for them.  They are smart, talented, and instinctively know what type of assignment isn’t for them.  They have to fight with themselves to get it done.  That was me, the topic was a snore to boot, or maybe it was the teacher?  (Yeah, let’s blame him!)

Forced to fit into an arbitrary mold to teach a lesson seems so counterproductive in the big scheme of learning how to function in the real world.  Navigating assignments thrown at us as “have to’s” isn’t what we sign up for.  Let alone pay for.  The horror of it!  Who in their right mind would pay to do something they hate doing to learn a lesson?  (Go grab your checkbook now, I’ve got some land in the Caribbean I’d like to sell you.)  

Since that year of dreaded history assignments (yeah, more than one came my way), I’ve learned how to force myself to do things I don’t want to do many, many, many times.  I hate my efforts every step of the way (until the end – I love the end – being done with it is the best part).

I’ve taught myself the value of those dreaded assignments.  It’s simple – sometimes you will have to do what you don’t want to do.  Oh, sorry, you thought my words of wisdom would be more profound? 

Don’t get me wrong, doing what you don’t want to do won’t be easy, but it can be done.  Working through each day up to completion is awful.  And hard.  Each day off course is worse than the day before – you feel like all you’re doing is coming full circle with no end in sight.

Alone! Alone!  No beacon, far or near!  No chart, no compass, and no anchor stay! – Ada Cambridge

But, dagnabit, putting it off doesn’t make it go away.  Some assignments (work, school, or self-induced) just have to get done.

By you and nobody else.

That sucks!  And it will take every ounce of creativity you have to fabricate anything resembling a masterpiece.

In the midst of the horrible, despicable, damn it’s made you the worst curmudgeon in the world assignment, the only way out is to realize you are the compass.

Your inner knowing is your only true compass.  – Joy Page

Overcome the guilt of not doing it so it stops haunting you.  If you suck at it, go ahead, give yourself permission to suck at the assignment, get it done, and move on.

Really??  Yep – weren’t you taught that valuable lesson in school?  It is okay to suck at something once and awhile (again with an attempt to be profound??).

There’s no point in making a dreaded assignment a masterpiece for all ages to admire.  Does anybody care about keeping stuff that sucks anyhow?  Nope.

The person who asked you (even if it is you) to do the assignment has their own assignment – to grade your effort.  They don’t really want to tell people they suck, neither do you.  They know not everyone is a Shakespeare.  I’d say, they even have an extra dose of compassion waiting in their wings for those moments when they know passing someone on to the next phase or assignment of life is the best for all parties involved.

Good thing – that means we can suck at writing something and still get points for effort, (if only the hours invested stressing about it could count, we’d all have “A’s”!) points for following the assignment, and points for just getting it done.  We’re all smart enough to do that!

Conscience is our magnetic compass; reason our chart.  – Joseph Cook

If you have a yucky assignment staring you in the face to get done, what are you waiting for…?  I don’t have any more advice…!  Go, (suck at it if you dare) get the assignment done!  I just finished writing about the compass and didn’t want to do it.  If I can do it, so can you.

Life past this thing is waiting for you.  You’ll see, it’s better on the side of completion!  Here’s to hoping tomorrow’s prompt is more desirable 😉

Daily Post Prompt:  Compass