Clean Slate or Blank Page: Unveiling Your One Word Blueprint

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:00:08

Welcome to blank pages. This is another great episode, I believe. We're gonna step into some Some new beginnings, some new stuff. It's a new year. And with that, it's essential that we understand the difference between A clean slate and a blank page to get started. So picture this. A clean slate is like this pristine Canvas. Right? It's devoid of any remnants or any ghosts or streaks from the past.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:00:42

It allows for an entirely fresh start without residue. It's enabling us, right, that nonresidue stuff. It enables us to paint a new picture of our lives. But conversely, right, a blank page. It signifies endless possibility, untouched, and free from any previous imprints. It's inviting. It invites us to to script a narrative that's entirely our own. So these are 2 different or Concepts are different things that are a way for you to look at how you can begin.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:01:22

And so I like to even go a little further with that. I'd like to I like to separate it into a clean slate and a blank piece of paper, right, so so we can really, really, really get into, like, what it means. So before I go too far, I just I hope that you wrapped up the end of the year well, and I hope that you're you're moving into your new year. I mean, I have so much that I wanna share, in a small amount of time that I want to, be mindful of that you, are giving, to listen to this podcast. So So I just wanna say, coming into the new year is so important. I just hope you finished well, and I hope that, you were able to have some great time with friends and family and that you're, you're really embracing, just looking forward to, hopefully, an ambitious future, right, in 2024. Thank you for those who have been listening, sending me notes, and, thank you for subscribing to the show and liking and sharing with your friends. Thank you for engaging with me on Instagram.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:02:22

And those of you, you can, catch me there, at Tim Pecoraro. So that's real simple. And, and, hey, when you're out there and you're posting and you if you tag me or anything or if you're working on yourself, always use the hashtag better at being human. So that's Better at being human. So, think speaking of the New Year and coming into it was a really cool thing. So on New Year's Eve, across the street from me, There's a family that has 2 little girls and a little boy, and they're they're tiny. They're small, and they're so active. And there's they come outside, and Every day, they're doing something, and they do it right there in the front yard.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:02:59

I love it. There are a group of people that come right there in the front yard and do everything, But they they had on the the all the New Year garb, and anyone that would come down the road, they would come out aside and start singing P New Year to you. Happy New Year. And it was the cutest thing. They were ges, like I mean, it was just it was adorable. And it just made me think, like, they are celebrating, so they're so excited. And And it just made me remember how important it was to have that type of innocence, which leads me into what I wanna talk about. I just I want everyone, to to step into this new year with this with this understanding that, you know, you have this opportunity to come at it with a with a clean slate or a blank page, and I want you to make sure that you understand that.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:03:50

So here's how you could separate the 2 a little further. A clean slate implies that something existed before has been erased or forgiven. It's about starting over BL with a history that might still influence the present. It's like Resetting a game where the previous rounds might still affect how you play now. But if you go to the other side of this and you say, well, let's go with a blank piece of paper. So on the other hand, now we go it suggests it's an absolute newness to it or potential without any prior influence. It symbolizes pure creation or the opportunity to start something entirely new. It's like beginning a completely the new game, right, with no rules or outcomes influenced by the past actions.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:04:43

So what's really cool about it, even though both of them Are you starting a new, but a blank piece of paper, it's gonna offer more un, unbounded. So it's gonna be a pure beginning. It's It's compared to, like, a clean slate, which is still going to have this you're trying to you're moving past something, but there's always that thing that something else has always occurred. There's always that thing dragging behind you. And what's it's it's that ghosting or that mark. It's like it's like when people say, I can forgive, but I can't forget. Right? Well, what they're saying is is, like, I'll give you a clean slate, but there's a lot of ghosting there. And I and I understand that, And I think as human beings, we should do that.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:05:25

We should be able to have a clean slate kinda mindset and and start there. We should all start there, But our goal should be that that blank page where we say, listen. We're not forgetting anything. However, moving forward, we're not gonna make decisions based on that memory. And so that's important. It's more redemptive to me. And I just that's one of the things that I'm really working hard at is making sure that I do more blank page stuff with other P, blank page stuff with myself, blank page stuff with the things I'm doing, and not so much of the clean slate thing. So people could say it's semantics, but for me, it makes sense.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:06:07

And I want something that, yeah, I want to build. I want to, but don't wanna be talking about everything I've always done. I wanna talk about the things that I'm doing. And I wanna talk about what is the the understanding now that I'm working with. Right? Because I've gone through this process of knowledge and and then into wisdom and then understanding. Like, you're going through it. It's a it's an ongoing thing. But what I'm really wanting to know is in everything that happens, I wanna make sure I understand.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:06:33

So in this understanding for me, I I want it to be a blank Piece of paper, a blank page. So let's get into that because it's a new year, and I know people are gonna have their goals. They're gonna have all these things they set. And just wanna go ahead and say take a deep breath because if you didn't hit it and hit it all at once, it's okay. It's okay to Acclimate. Get yourself built up towards doing it. Okay? That's alright. Now I know some people say, don't do that.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:06:59

You gotta go all in. Great. That's fine. But I'm also kind of, I think, more of a coach, like a coach when it comes to a sport. Not every athlete comes in ready to play. So let's go ahead and do that with ourselves because guess what? Our bodies are something, but so is our psyche, so is our internal spirit person. And so what we wanna do is get ourselves acclimated. So take a deep breath, relax, but here's what I want you to do.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:07:22

Because it's a new year, I want you to I wanna help you get a blank page mindset. Right? So I wanna help you embrace that. So just this is like this canvas that you're gonna work with. Every day is gonna be a blank page. Every day is gonna be an opportunity. Right? Every day is gonna have untapped potential. It's gonna be every day you open the door when the future comes in. It's not merely just this philosophy thing, right, but it's gonna be a transformative approach.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:07:49

It's gonna urge. It's the urging, the thing that inside of you to to perceive every single moment as it's an uncharted territory, but it's something I wanna get into. It's my opportunity to reinvent. It's my opportunity to to learn. At the core, I want you to know that a blank page mindset's gonna champion the concept of starting afresh, unburdened by past narratives or constraints. It's gonna beckon us to approach situations, challenges, and even our own lives with a perspective that's unmarred by preconceptions or biases or our own self imposed limitations or, hey, the remnants, the ghosting, right, on the clean slate. The but the thing that I want you to realize is you're gonna have to be open to this. You're gonna have to have a willingness to embrace new ideas, and You're gonna have to be willing to be adventurous.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:08:43

You're gonna have to be willing to sit on the edge of uncertainty. You're gonna have to entertain very, very diverse and different viewpoints. You know, this it's going to cause you to get become more creative, actually, And you're going to get into this place where more solutions are gonna come up instead of just problems. So you're not going to when you when you get into this blank page mindset and you and you step into this openness, it's gonna also cause you to Step into the how do I put it? So it's that it's that fuel space, that place where you just get excited, And you feel stuff building up. It's like a sport. And, like, and and, again, like, in soccer and when you're playing or football, for those of you, you know what I mean, And and you're playing from the back, and you're building up, and you're allowing things to unfold. You're not just trying to put a big ball up over the top. You're just building up, and you're working, and you're connecting things.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:09:42

That's where you wanna get. That's what happens when you have a blank page. You gave yourself to start fresh with being creative in having more ideas. But it's not just about having the absence of, you know, prior things that have happened or content or whatever. It's about a deliberate act of filing the those blank pages with purposeful and and intentional Strokes, like the oh, sorry. Filing the old stuff, put that away, but creating and filling your new pages with with with intentional lines, doing it on purpose. So, yes, you have to put away the other things and file that away intentionally, but you have to fill in a new way to BlankPage. Now I am not an advocate for forgetting the past.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:10:36

Right? But I believe in learning from it. Because when you learn, it's more about forgiveness. It's not just saying I'm sorry. Sorry is great, but it still keeps power. But when you ask for forgiveness, it lets go of some power. So You want to always remember you wanna champion forgiveness in in in moving past grievances and and and starting new. You also when you're when you're in this kind of a mindset, you're adaptable in the face of change, and And you know what happens when you get rigid, and you know what that'll do. So when you embrace this mindset, you're gonna step away from from being confined and being stock.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:11:17

And anything that ties you down, you're gonna move beyond that stuff, well beyond it. So what I wanna do is I wanna kinda give you just a a little list, something that will help you as you develop this mindset. The This mindset, I want it to be something that you just will continue to remember that it you make it into what you need it to be. So if it's a blank page situation, you wanna just sit down and say, hey. How do I go into this new thing? How do I step into how do I do this this part of my relationship better? How do I do this thing with my work better? Do I work with coworkers better? How do I go about the way I start a new thing better? All of it. Just remember. So be informed. You don't have to forget.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:11:59

Just be informed, but make new decisions. New decisions, not driven by everything that you've already done. Okay. So I'm gonna give you, some things that I would just want you to list out. Alright? These are this is what happens when you have an adversarial. This is what happens when you have a blank page mindset and when you don't. Right? So if you have a blank page mindset, You're gonna be open to new new ideas. But if you don't have 1, you're gonna be resistant to change.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:12:31

Okay? So for the new year, if you have a blank page mindset, you're gonna be open. If you don't, you're gonna be resistant to change. Second thing is if you have a blank pages mindset, You'll be willing to learn. And if you have, the adversarial view of that, you'll have a fixed mindset. You won't learn. And so if you have a blank page mindset, you'll believe in the fresh start, like a complete fresh start. But if you don't have that, you'll believe in dwelling on the past, mistakes. If you have a blank page mindset, you'll be creative, and you'll step into that creativity and innovation.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:13:06

And if not, it'll be Being stagnant and rigid. If you have a blank page mindset, you'll find yourself not being so biased in perspective. You'll move more into an unbiased perspective. Because if you have the adversarial view, oh, you'll come in strong with your prejudgments and and the biases. If you have a blank pages mindset, you'll be adaptable, and that's always good. And if you're not, You'll be resistant, the person who is resistant to change. And if you have the blank page mindset, you'll embrace uncertainty. Yes.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:13:42

Get on that edge. Sit on the seat the edge of the or that seat right there where uncertainty is. But if you Don't have that. You'll fear all the time the unknown. If you have a blank page mindset, you'll have the forgive and let go. And if you don't, you will hold that grudge. You will totally indefinitely. Hold that grudge.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:14:07

Now I will list those in the show notes, so please feel free to work on those. And in the future, I'm gonna get more into that, and I will actually, BL putting some material together for creating your own blank page moments where you I'll show you some frameworks that will help you, to do that well and do it better and just move into more of the open spaces of blank pages. So, But what I really wanna do is now now that I've said all that and given you this mindset part, I want you to think about you're going into the the new year. You're here. Remember I talked about just building up. It's okay to get yourself acclimated to what's happening, and you don't have to do everything at once. You could do a little at a time. Well, one of the things I wanna help you do is is get a word.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:14:51

Just get 1 word that's gonna help drive you, okay, and give you some direction. So, I'm putting a resource together that's gonna go deeper into this, but I'm just gonna give you a basic overview for how you can find your one word. So this process is about distilling our intentions and our aspirations into just a single potent word, okay, that's going to serve as our guiding light throughout the year. So here we go. These are, once again, just guiding steps. Right? Finding your word. So just imagine because I know I would, and I hope you would. So let me just ask you this question.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:15:28

Would you like to embark, like, on a journey to discover your one word? What what if you could do that in 7 days? Would that be pretty cool? Alright. So let's just say I'm gonna give you something to do for 7 days and help you find your one word. Alright? So this is a simple, in a nutshell, way to do it. I hope you'll do it. And if you find it, I want you to tag me on Instagram at Tim Pecoraro with your one word, and and that would be great. NK? So here's here's number 1. It it takes a reflective beginning. So you want to, on day 1, just Begin with reflecting on your goals, your values, and aspirations, you know, that you wanna see in the year.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:16:12

You can say for a month, you know, for the 1st month or 1st 3 months, and it could be half a year. Just work your way into it. And then and then what are the themes that kinda resonate Real deeply with you as you're reflecting on that. Okay? Number 2, you wanna brainstorm and kinda do a little research, so dive into this thing. Generate a list of, like, words that align with your intentions. Right? I always say to people, align. Right? So you wanna align your intentions with your impact or align your impact with your intentions. So no matter what you wanna do, if you know what impact you want, so make sure that you align your intentions along with it.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:16:49

That way you know that you're intending to do that. Right? So what aligns with it? So explore those meanings. Right? And and and and what do they mean behind them, and and, like, what what's it all about? And then These are the things that should when you find those meanings, these are the words that you understand and that you get them, and they're they're fully a part of what I would say is, You know, your essence. Alright? So then you wanna narrow it down, number 3. Just narrow the thing down. Trim the list. Cut the list down. Cut it down.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:17:20

I know for me, I could get a lot of of words, but what I'm one I'm understanding now more in life is sometimes just Leave a lot of synonyms alone, these adjacent things, and find the thing that's real concrete. Really get just try to get better at curating the words that have the most weight for your life, so trim it down, and those words that resonate most most powerfully with your aspirations. Right? And then number 4, visualization in in evaluation. Right? Envision how each word could could manifest in your life. How it could show up? Remember, you open the door, the future comes in. Consider that emotional impact in the resonance, right, of those words, And then you wanna test it out a little bit. Right? So that'd be number 5. Test day 5.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:18:06

Select 1 word and test it. You know, test it for a day or 2, and, use it as a as a a lens to make a decision. Like, say, hey. I'll use this word, and I'll make a decision. Observe how it it influences, your choices or what kind of influences it have on you. Then 6, seek some inspiration, like quotes and stories, anything that, you know, would be related, something that would be maybe a potential word even. But let those sources or things that you engage, let them reinforce where you go. And then, 7, just you gotta make a decision, right, final decision and intentions.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:18:45

So make your final choice and set your intentions around it. Commit to embodying that word, right, through your whole year and allowing it to guide and inspire you. Alright? So I hope you will just take take that serious. Take it hard. Reflect beginning do reflective beginnings, number 1, day 1. Day 2, brainstorm and research. Day 3, narrow things down. Day 4, visualize and evaluate it.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:19:17

Day 5, test the waters. Day 6, seek inspiration. And day 7, hey. It's final decision and intentions. So that's a simple thing. Post what your results are, if you will, at Tim Pecoraro on Instagram. I hope you find that one word, and I hope you can do it with a blank page mindset. And just remember that.

Tim Pecoraro [: 00:19:39

Always sit down, take your time, and be someone that will fill those blank pages because nothing will listen better than a blank piece of paper. So until next time, I hope that you have an amazing kickoff to your new year. Talk soon.