Ideas can hit you at any moment. It’s important to remember what your thoughts were, especially if you need them. When you’re young, you can remember thoughts from years ago. When you get older, you can barely remember what you thought two minutes ago. It’s not as bad as it sounds, but it’s one of those things that happen, the older you become.
When you’re young, it seems like it’ll last forever. You don’t think about getting older, because everything is going fine. Your memory is good, you can eat just about anything without putting on a pound, and your body moves the way it should.
When you become older, you’ll walk into another room and say, “What did I come in here for?” It happens to the best of us. It’s nothing to be ashamed about, just some simple adjustments that need to be made.
One thing that really helps is writing things down. As long as I can remember, my father always had a pen and pad in his shirt pocket. He wrote down EVERYTHING. And he put a date on it. My siblings and I used to laugh, but now, I find myself carrying a pen and pad around, to write things down. You know what? It works!
I have many ideas that come to me at various moments (I’m an awesome thinker). I normally could remember what I thought about earlier in the afternoon, but it’s become somewhat of a struggle. Now, I just accept it and I’ve learned to write it down, so I can move on with my day. There have been times where I had an idea and I thought I could remember (because it was the greatest idea anyone ever had), only to let myself down when it’s time to remember what that idea was. Don’t let yourself down – write it down.
The hardest part is actually convincing yourself to buy a pen and pad, just so you can write things down. It seems nerdy at first, until you look back to see what you wrote. Then, you’ll thank yourself a million times for writing it down. Problem solved.
So, whatever you think, put to ink. It beats walking around, looking confused. All you have to do is write it down. The first time you walk into a room and forget why you’re there, don’t beat yourself up. It happens. Get a pen and pad and write it down.
You’ll thank me when you’re older.