
#chalkboarddaily
In this age of technology, where everyone types and swipes on computer keyboards, tablets and smart phones, I still keep a pencil and paper nearby. Call me old school, but I still like making my to-do lists and writing important notes with pencil and paper. It helps me retain the information better and when that piece of paper or post-it is staring me in the face on my desk, or from under a magnet on the fridge, it’s harder to overlook than when it’s mixed in with the myriad of texts, emails and other electronic distractions.
The other thing I like about writing things down is the feeling of accomplishment when you can literally cross something off your list or place a big checkmark next to it. Instant gratification.
And then, with pencils, there is the eraser. That pink, rubbery substance at the top that sometimes leaves a chalky residue, and granules of the previously written words, that you need to sweep off the paper. With an eraser, the mistakes on paper can be made to disappear quickly and once that area has new words on it, the old mistake is very quickly forgotten.
I got to thinking one day: wouldn’t it be great if the mistakes we make in life could be erased as easily as the mistakes we make on paper? How great would it be if we could erase and re-write our lives to correct our mistakes and imperfect actions?
While this can’t be done in reality, it can be done in a conceptual way. Imagine for a moment a mistake or past event that occurred that is plaguing you. If you wrote it on a piece of paper, you could simply erase it. If you take that physical activity of erasing it and make a mental activity of it, could you also erase that mistake from your mind permanently?
What if you took it one step further and then re-wrote something over the area that you just erased? The new content could be an idea, a to-do item, a happy thought, inspirational quote or anything else that re-directs your thoughts to a new place or sets you on a new path. Now you have something else occupying that “space” to further help erase the old mistake and give you something new to focus on, to create a new, positive event.
The next time you find yourself mulling or stressing over something in the past, take a moment to write it down on a piece of paper with a brand new No.2 pencil. Then erase it. Then take a moment to write down a new goal or something positive in that empty space on paper and let only that consume your thoughts moving forward. It’s purely psychological but it may work for you. It is just one of many tools that works for me.
If you don’t have any, go out and buy yourself some good old-fashioned No. 2 pencils today. Maybe I’ll see you there, buying more for myself.
Note about the chalkboard in the image: I started doing a #chalkboarddaily a few months ago. This one I decided to develop into a blog post. If you would like to see more chalkboards, follow me on Twitter and http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/jenniferpanepinto/