Fresh Starts & Pencil Cases

It’s grey, cloudy and drizzly outside, and there are some leaves already turning yellow.  You’re considering putting on an extra layer in the evening, and craving something warm and comforting for tea.  Suddenly salads and barbecues feel seasons away, and no matter how old you are, you have the urge to stock up on stationery.  It’s September, it’s back-to-school-time and it’s a time for new beginnings.

It’s almost like a second New Year, just three-quarters of the way through it.  There’s something powerful in a new beginning, or a fresh start, and September always feels like a natural time to make one.  Maybe you’re a little stuck for direction, in your education, job or career.  Maybe your A-Level or GCSE results weren’t as you hoped, and you’re still feeling a little deflated and anxious about your next steps.  Maybe you’ve been trying to build the courage to seek out a new job, or move to a different city.  Or maybe you’ve noticed it’s time for some introspection and reflection after an 18 months or so that has pushed almost all of us to pause and think.

Sometimes, we need a little encouragement to start to make a change, so here’s your virtual nudge to get started on turning a new leaf, and carving out your fresh start. 

This September, instead of adding another £5.99 to WH Smith’s coiffeurs, invest in your Pencil Case of New with Think2Speak:  

1.      Pencils

The staple.  We all need a pencil.  Graphite is a great mark-making tool for many reasons, but crucially – it’s erasable.  That means it’s not totally fixed.  You can commit to it enough to mark a surface, but when you want to change and adapt, or get rid of it entirely, you can.  From technical drawing pencils, to a trusty black and yellow HB, there are an endless choice of pencil types, but to start your Pencil Case of New inventory with this item, we’re starting with the big-picture stuff. 

Grab a pencil, and a piece of paper and write “Next September” in a circle in the middle of your page.  Set yourself a 3 minute timer if you can, and write down ideas, words, dreams, and aspirations that spring to mind about what you would like your life (or your career, your relationship, or yourself) to look like next September. 

Try not to overthink it!  And keep scribbling ideas until the time is up.

2.     Eraser

Now take a look at your responses.   You may have written down more than you thought you might, and you might just surprise yourself with some of the ideas you had.
If you have an eraser, carefully consider each of your responses, and try to think about the ideas that you are most committed to, that you really believe are possible, or that you are really determined to reach. 
Erase the responses that, when reading them again, don’t quite resonate with you, or make you excited for the year ahead.  You may notice that there are ideas that might have been hopes for the past year that you haven’t quite reached, or ideas that feel too unrealistic that it seems as though you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.  This is the essence of new beginnings; the idea of creating a clean slate.

Keep erasing until you are left with between 3 and 5 core ideas and hopes.  These might just be singular words; or feel like they don’t quite ‘make sense’ on their own, and that’s just fine, stick with them!

3.     Ruler

Here at Think2Speak, when we’re thinking about designing programmes or projects to bring about change, we know how important it is to build the conditions that enable and nurture the process.  You can think about your new beginning, and utilising your Pencil Case of New in just the same way.

Now that you have discovered your core hopes and ideas for the next year, it’s time to think about the practicalities; how to actually reach those dreams, and set the wheels of change in motion.

When you make a change and make a commitment, it’s often hard to keep it up – which is one reason why forging a September Fresh Start for yourself is a positive psychological idea.

Grab a ruler, and your pencil, and draw a line from each idea, connecting it to your “Next September” circle in the middle of your page. 
It’s a simple task; but the act of physically connecting these dots helps the brain to connect these pieces of information together.  Drawing a line between “Securing a new job” and “Next September” essentially creates this pathway inside your mind; enabling you to process your ideas and hopes in relation to this time next year. 

This tiny trick works in many aspects of life too.  Do you take notes at school, or make to-do lists with actions in your job?  Drawing a line, and connecting those physical dots between an idea and an outcome helps to keep you on track, committed and focused on your goal, or helps you to memorise and process information. 

4.     Pens

Colourful pens, marker pens, a sleek black fine-liner… whatever your pen of choice, it suddenly feels like you’re about to make a commitment.
Creating the conditions to make your change requires you to consider what it is that you can action in order to achieve your goal.  On the lines you have drawn between your ideas and centre circle, use your pen to write down the action you need to take to get there.  If your ideas are quite abstract, you might have numerous actions to write down. 
Maybe you’d like to be more connected to friends and family; one of your actions could be to send them a regular postcard.   Or you may have a core idea of prioritising self-care – you might commit to the action of setting time aside for creative relaxation and try your hand at completing a Think2Speak colouring book. 

Just like drawing lines, writing down these actions with a pen actually strengthens your commitment to action.  Creating your new beginning is already positively effecting the likelihood of you truly pursuing your goal, and using a pen (not a pencil!) to commit them to paper is helping to cement them, and ensuring you hold yourself to account and stick on track, and stick to the promises you’re making yourself.

5.     Pencil Sharpener

You might have made new goals last year, or at the start of the new calendar year, or even at the start of a new job, or when you moved into a new house.  Those goals might not have been reached; your focus might have slipped and you may have fallen off track. 

This time, prepare for this!  Make a note in your calendar, or set an alert on your phone for 3 months’ time.  Your inspiration may have deflated and your motivation blunted as you begin the course of reaching your ideas of change. 
It’s time to take out your pencil again, and sharpen it.  Sharpen your view and think more carefully about what is on the horizon, now informed with the information you have from those 3 months’ of already working towards your goal. 
You might like to repeat the Pencil Case of New exercise from the start again; and keep doing so (however often as you like)!

If you’re feeling really brave, pop your piece of paper inside an envelope, address it to yourself and ask someone you trust to keep it safe, and give it back to you in 3 or 6 months’ time. 

Sharpening your pencil (or reflecting and evaluating where you were, where you’ve got to, and where you still want to go) creates a ‘check-in point’ that helps to keep you on the track towards change, and also gives you the opportunity to reap the benefit of a new beginning, and the powerful effects fresh starts bring, at any time you need to.

Happy new beginning!