I was driving a distance recently, which gives me plenty of thinking time.  I brought my little recorder with me to capture any ideas for blog posts.  And then, in the moment, I told myself that this one is so good I am bound to remember it.  Ha.

I knew better.  I really, really did.  I would be well off if I had a dollar for every time in the past I wound up wanting to kick myself for not making some note about an idea worth pursuing later.  Now I’m just sitting here trying to draw the right memory back out and not get tangled in the regret of what I should have done.

There is no excuse, the recorder was inches from me, easily accessible.

Sometimes I wonder if we do this to ourselves on purpose, set ourselves up in small ways to get tangled in foolish regrets?  To prove the old saying that ‘to err is human’, to keep ourselves vigilant when the bigger opportunities come along – what do you think, I’m just spinning here?

Now I am left chasing the idea of a thought.  Trying to play word association – sounded like, what CD was I playing…  Not even a hint at the moment.  Maybe I can get it back by pushing the quest to the back of my mind.  I often get solutions that way, if I can distract myself with something else.  I know that pushing too hard to remember something just pushes that something farther out of reach.

It feels like this happens to me all too often.  I can be in one room and think of a couple of things that we need at the store and by the time I get to the kitchen where I keep the list, the things that came to mind have kept on going.  So I find myself chanting them with every step.

How about you, what thought did you recently misplace?

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Tagged: Information management, Life, Memory, Perspective, Problem solving, Process, Thinking