Why Is It So Difficult To Use The Green Marker?

The tendency we all have to focus on our mistakes is pretty sad. This tendency is characterized by the temptation to punish and torment ourselves with our past failures. We dream of them, curl up into a ball while tasting their bitterness. It’s like garlic burning in the frying pan. We mark our papers with the red marker and forget to use the green marker.

This tendency causes us to make our smallest mistakes the worst murders, the most serious violations and the final proof of our incompetence. We use that whip skillfully to inflict both ourselves and others punishment. And we do this only to later try to heal the wounds with our own unskilled hands. The unskilled hands refuse to follow any method other than what society teaches us.

Many people out there are experts at torturing themselves, both privately and publicly. At school, they do not teach you how to channel your emotions so that they work to your advantage, but they use the red marker instead of the green marker. They notice the mistakes, not the achievements.

The green marker during childhood

Teachers demand students’ attention to the points where they tend to make mistakes. If you are not good at math and are good at math, you will probably spend the summer solving math problems. English and other subjects fall away. After all, you have passed them.

I have been a student. Now I’m a teacher. Along the way, I have encountered hundreds of corrected exams where the only thing that was clearly marked was wrong. It could have been an otherwise flawless, well-founded or heartfelt response. Yet, above all, what shines like the moon in the night sky is a small spelling mistake, a device error, or a reversed sign.

This marker is an attitude

This is how your shortcomings condition you. The idea is to seal the holes the water leaks from. The alternative is a more attractive and stimulating learning method. In this you highlight the achievements, improvements and results of your efforts. These are traditionally marked with a green marker. Therefore, we are talking about the difference between the red marker and the green marker.

Because we all, whether we correct actual exams or not, use them. You come home and see that your partner has prepared a good meal for you and that they have cleaned the house, but they have forgotten to make the bed. What would you say? What do you want to notice the most? Whether the glass is half full or half empty is not just a question of pessimism or optimism. Instead, it is the filter you have in everything you see. These are the reins you maneuver the horse with.

Adults also use these markers on other adults. The important thing is to see which one you spend more with other people, and which one you spend on yourself. Do you end the day thinking about the data that does not match the department’s financial forecasts? Or do you notice how your knee pain has disappeared thanks to the training you have done the last few days?

Red ink and green ink say a lot about how we treat others and how we treat ourselves. For example, you may think that generosity is a great value, but you may not use it much yourself. You can admire people who motivate and comfort others – so what makes it so hard to do it yourself? Why is it so difficult to use the green marker and so easy to overuse the red one?