#8 of 30 – Handwriting

Another in the series of posts in response to randomly selected titles:

I’ve always had a strong sense of having awful handwriting ever since I learnt to write in primary school as a left hander. The teachers not only told me that my writing was awful, they also pointed out that this was probably because I am left handed. By the time I as in secondary school we had to write using fountain pens which meant that everything tended to smudge as the left hand dragged across everything that had been written whilst the ink was still wet. 

Using computers just seemed like a gift to someone with rubbish handwriting! I still like to write – I keep a hand written journal regularly, and in work I have never been keen on the electronic note in meetings – I would much rather write out my own notes as I go. They are usually legible to me – as long as I don’t write too fast. 

It’s  interesting to observe the way that these early impressions can have such a heavy impact on our underlying beliefs. A careless word from a teacher, from any adult really, can create whole belief systems that then restrict our world view. This is a core theme in coaching practise. With clients it is often key to listen to everything that they say, and look for underlying assumptions, belief systems that don’t serve them. When I hear these the response is usually, first to ask “Why do you think that?” and then to ask “How does holding that belief serve you?”

This unpacks what is going on for the client and the ways in which these subtle beliefs may be holding them back. 

For me, the thoughts I have about my handwriting mean that I tend to turn writing into a scribbling as fast as I can process, keeping up with my thoughts. And that makes the writing really scrappy. If I slow down, it helps my thinking as well as making my writing easier to read. I don’t necessarily have awful handwriting, it’s just that I don’t put a lot of care into it because I was told when I was a child that my writing was awful and I have been stuck  with that belief, thinking it can’t change. Like so many things, I can change the belief, and I can also change the practice and write in a clearer and more legible way. 

Our view of reality is just our view of reality, not a universal perspective on things. Because it is relative, we can change so many things that we think of as immutable, unchangeable and just the way things are. As we realise this, we begin to liberate ourselves from our own self-imposed prison.