What is Red Pencil Syndrome?
Are you puzzling about that terminology? I did, too. We want to know what the heck it is, whether we have it, and how to eliminate it if it’s bad. As the Master Key Experience presenter talked about it I started nodding in recognition. You will, too.
From the time we start school we associate our teachers with red pencils, don’t we? Did your first grade teacher draw red lines to show you how to make your black lines straighter? Did you hate seeing red check marks when tests were returned? Did you beam with pride at a really good grade at the top of a page even if it was in red–especially when it had a plus after it? So red wasn’t all bad. Then came years of getting “compositions” back looking as though someone had bled all over them. Well, all that developed in us RED PENCIL SYNDROME: focusing mostly on what’s wrong with our performance rather than what’s right.
Our Teachers Had Red Pencil Syndrome
Unfortunately the RED PENCIL SYNDROME had become part of the educational system at some point–so our teachers got it as kids and then passed it on to us. I myself was a teacher for many years and it never EVER occurred to me to return a paper with green pencil marking all 90 plus per cent of the items that were good and right on a paper. Yes, I wrote compliments…but I wrote them in red pencil as had my teachers for over 20+ years of my schooling. That RED PENCIL SYNDROME was there constantly to remind me that I was being judged. Red was the color of correction for my own good. Red was a reminder that I was far from perfect and that someone was noticing, calling it to my attention, and ranking me among my peers.
Becoming Aware of Red Pencil Syndrome Helps
Even out of school we talk about someone’s bank account being “in the red,” and banks “red lining” neighborhoods. So we all have RED PENCIL SYNDROME, at least in the U.S. Realizing that and putting a name to it is the first step to eliminating it. That’s what the Master Key Experience course is doing for me. In my daily “sits” I’m deepening my belief that I am the only one responsible for my life. The teachers I have attracted into my life were there was a reason and a season. They were guides suggesting approaches.
The difference is now I know I am free to accept or reject their guidance! My life is always green and growing and I certainly can use guidance to grow in the direction I intend, especially when I’m too close to the situation to be objective. But now I want guidance to be green and growing, too–to focus on the 90 plus per cent that is right and good and to encourage more of it. Why? I’ve learned that one of the principles of life is “what we focus on expands.” Too much of my life I’ve focused on what’s wrong with me and my performance. That meant I felt “less-than” in face of all the glaring reds pointing that out day after day. I wrote here about the FEAR I lived with most of my life as a result of being constantly criticized.
Now I’m focused on what’s right with me and my performance. My self-confidence is through the roof as I’ve surrounded myself with guides who help the green and growing parts of me. My zest for life is higher than it’s ever been because I’ve left the red pencil judges behind in favor of helping myself help myself. I love mind-mastery study, applying scientific techniques I’m learning through the MKE, and focusing on transforming into the Shirley who will achieve a huge Definite Major Purpose.
Red Transforms Itself into Another Kind of Impact
Imagine my delight, knowing all this, when I opened the Master Key Experience app which has a checklist of activities to accomplish over each day. No red anywhere! In fact the whole list is already filled in with GREEN checkmarks assuming we are living at our highest and best every day. Only if I don’t do one of the things do I remove a checkmark. Yet that leaves all the GREEN of what I have accomplished for me to focus on and celebrate!
Not only that, but this week we are being encouraged to look for red circles everywhere in our lives, beginning the process of changing the association of red with judgment and less-than and RED PENCIL SYNDROME. Yes, there are red stop lights and red stop signs. But I’m noticing that FAR MORE red things are natural and full of life that is growing. So many of the red circles are fruits and berries on very green stalks, bushes, and trees!
Get the Key Free. Breakthrough, Too!
Through the Master Key Experience I finally have a MasterMind group that supports me powerfully as I remove the RED PENCIL SYNDROME from my life. Finally I’m able to create breakthroughs I’ve longed for. So I understand if up till now you’ve not had a MasterMind and have been missing out. I skimmed life, too. If you’re ready to stop skimming and to start doing the deep work that creates breakthroughs in the context of a true MasterMind, I can help. I’ve been given the privilege of offering a very special free tool to help you start training your brain to think the right way. The MKE course and its scholarships happen only once a year, starting the last Sunday of September. But you can get started today by clicking here while you wait: 7 DAY MENTAL DIET. (1) Put your name on the waiting list for the next MASTER KEY EXPERIENCE course. (2) When you’ve clicked to do that, the 7 DAY MENTAL DIET comes up. Download, print, read, and try it! Once you sign up, I’ll keep in touch by email, even sharing tips of what helped me to do the Diet. Sound good? You can opt out at any time. But why not check it out now?
You know what they say–if not now, when? If not you, who? No one can get the key to YOUR breakthroughs but YOU. No one can get through what’s locking that door but YOU–it’s a YOU-shaped key. No one can make it work except YOU. I wish you a powerful MasterMind in your future and NO MORE RED PENCIL SYNDROME. And all the best!
Great article!!! Thanks for writing this it’s so important to be aware of this “red pencil syndrome!” And so important to make it a habit to look for what’s right- or good- or awesome- or beautiful and to point it out. … when a student is assisting me teach martial arts, I try to remember to tell them to look for what the students are doing well and point it out! Our brains are usually in the habit of looking for what is wrong, what could be improved, what could be better… Tgamk you for the reminder to do the opposite- it’s SO important and even more effective! (And to apply it to myself. 😆)
Oh, Laura. I am SO WITH YOU on this and your comments. Thanks for doing that in martial arts as you teach and all your other endeavors!