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Lessons from a working girl
Moons ago, when we all rocked the Melanie Griffith "Working Girl" look and mobile phones were the size of house bricks, I started work as a trainee solicitor ("attorney" to you Americans). I worked in "The City" as Londoners call their financial district (for there can be only one city) in a huge, nay planet-sized law firm, that most likely had a GDP to rival Belgium. It was a pretty awful experience. I wasn't suited to it at all and it made me profoundly bored and desperately miserable, but it taught me one very valuable lesson.
I was working for a man with perpetual enthusiasm for "the next deal". With a big smile and an over-confident handshake, he filled every room he was in, and though I tried not to like him I couldn't help myself. I nicknamed him "Lord Flashheart" after a confident, bumptious character in one of my favourite TV comedy shows. I worked with him for several years and despite attempts to remain cynical I sort of liked and respected him. In a company of cold fish, he was at least human and honest.
Throughout our time together, he would regularly bump into obstacles. Political objections higher up the food chain, departments too busy to assist, workers too stubborn to think differently. Monotonous grumblings from the overworked and the underpaid that yet another task had landed on their "to do" list. His job, though, was to get the deal done, and that's what he did. Faced with the avalanche of pointless objections he would be as immovable as they, and in the end his persistent, relentless, stubborn insistence always won through. He maintained humour for as long as possible, but in the end would take a deep breath, furrow his brow and deliver the inevitable command: "JFDI".
Just Fucking Do It.
He always met his deadlines and he always did his deal.
And that's the most important lesson of all. Whatever your project: raising kids, going out to work, running a house, the time arrives when what you need to accomplish becomes tedious and tiring and mired in difficulty. Most often, giving up and maintaining a miserable status quo is all we can manage. But it's those very moments when we should be taking the boldest steps, making the hardest choices and the biggest decisions.
To never decide on a direction or a course of action for fear of making a bad decision, or having, finally, to take responsibility? Always a mistake. When the going gets tough, the tough get going - we've all heard that cliché, but it's true. If you just plod on, if you insist and persist and try harder and think deeper and just keep on keeping on, you will make it happen through sheer force of will. Next time it all gets too hard, grit your teeth. Become you own Lord Flashheart. Face your challenge. Grab your task by the scruff of its neck and intimidate it into submission.
JFDI. What are you waiting for?
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Comments (25)
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Report Tue Oct 23, 2012 - 5:35 pmNext time it all gets too hard, grit your teeth. Become you own Lord Flashheart. Face your challenge. Grab your task by the scruff of its neck and intimidate it into submission.Reply -
2 replies, Last reply by cavalli in vendita on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 4:26 pm
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Fri Jun 29, 2012 - 9:49 pm
Hey Liz, Woke up way too early this morning and read this and JFDI. Have lots more to JFD but wanted to stop and say Thanks! and this may just be the perfect next tatoo if I decide to get one.Reply -
11 replies, Last reply by cheap unlocked cell phones on Tue Dec 11, 2012 at 12:22 pm
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Report Sat Nov 17, 2012 - 7:57 amI did like your article, thanks for sharing it. I will bookmark it and come back later.Reply
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Report Tue Nov 13, 2012 - 11:43 pmThanks for sharing this post...Reply
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Report Tue Oct 30, 2012 - 7:01 pmGrab your task by the scruff of its neck and intimidate it into submission.Reply
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1 reply, Last reply by Best Car Leasing Deals on Mon Nov 5, 2012 at 2:56 pm
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Report Thu Oct 25, 2012 - 4:00 pmI getting one on my arse...Reply
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Report Sun Jul 1, 2012 - 1:15 amI run a charity that funds a small school in Ghana, and you wouldn't believe the brick walls I run up against on a day to day basis. I am going to cross-stitch this on something and stick it right in front of my line of sight next time. (OK, well perhaps not cross-stitch. I mean who has time to cross-stitch these days?)Reply
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2 replies, Last reply by SEO Agency on Tue Aug 28, 2012 at 1:33 pm
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Fri Jun 29, 2012 - 7:25 pm
I agree. I can't tell you how many agents/publishers have rejected my writing..but I had to JFDI because nothing gets done if you don't.Reply -
1 reply, Last reply by Liz Dawes on Fri Jun 29, 2012 at 8:56 pm
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