750 Words

I have some strengths and I have some weaknesses. I would say that I have an average amount of both. I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on things that I am good at and things that I am not so great at. One of the things I’m not great at is being consistent with my writing. A point in case, look at my entries on this blog. They go back quite a way and yet, they aren’t super consistent! I have accepted this, but it is also something that I want to work on changing. Which is why I have some really exciting news. Just a few days ago I passed the mark of having written 100,000 words on my personal online journal! That feels like a really big landmark until you see that I have been a member since mid-2016. But! I am currently on a 31-day writing streak! That is the most exciting part of this for me. I don’t know how long this streak will last, but I am really trying to keep it up.

Bragging about me working on my weaknesses wasn’t the entire purpose of me writing this blog entry. I wanted to share with you the website I use. I really really really love it. I am going to share some screen captures to explain why I like it so much.

7     1) 750words.com. It is online, but it is private. You have options to share it, but I never have, and I don’t plan on ever sharing. It costs $5 a month, which isn’t free, but for me, it’s worth it!

2     2) I can type a lot faster than I can write. I know that writing by hand is better than typing, but for now, this method is getting me to do the work. Maybe at some point I will migrate to pen and paper, but for now this is helping me to be consistent.

3        3) I use this website to do stream of consciousness writing. Whatever is on my mind, or going through my brain, comes out. And that, for me, is really beneficial. Sometimes I don’t realize what I am thinking until I’ve written it, or really spent some time meditating, so this provides a daily natural way to keep my thoughts in my awareness.

Now, for those screenshots.

Some things here to notice: It keeps a monthly log of how many words and days I’ve completed. (I went back and captured the 24^th of April – the day I crossed 100,000 words – that’s why it says I’ve completed 28 days even though it’s the 24^th of April). You get fun little badges when you accomplish things. Most recently I earned the 100,000 word badge (three birds), and the 30 in a row (maybe that’s an albatross?)! Fun little gamey things.

It graphs your typing. You can see on this graph, that at around 9 minutes I either took a little break or was trying to figure out where to go with my thoughts. The same at 11 minutes, 16, 19, and 23. But, it took me 25 minutes, with an overall average of 30 words per minute. It keeps track of your distractions (breaks over 3 minutes), and it doesn’t save, let you be done with that day until you’ve crossed the 750-word mark. You can see that I got 755 words that day.

You can see it keeps track of your total word count. It tells you your record for fasted entry. That day where I did it in 7 minutes, I was in a hurry and copied and pasted in a blog I was working on and typed a few more quick thoughts. I average around 19-24 minutes. My word record (for one day) is 846 – not sure what I was worked up about THAT day! Then it tells you how many days you’ve done overall, and your longest streak. I am proud of both of those numbers!

I love this part. First, Mom, there was no swearing, so I got a “G” rating. Phew. But, it then tells you what your writing was about that day. As you can see here, I was mostly sad and mostly concerned about eating and drinking. You know what? I think this was on the day that I was feeling upset that Thailand banned all alcohol sales through the end of the month!   ; )   But you can see by both pie charts that it keeps track of all the emotions and topics in your writing. I don’t always find this 100% accurate. It uses metadata and so if you type the word, “happy” it will assume that you are happy. But, maybe you were being sarcastic and saying, “I am sooooo happy that I have to wear facemasks everywhere I go!” It doesn’t get that. So, not 100% accurate. But, I still find this very valuable as a reflection tool going forward.

I really like these graphs too. Introverted or Extraverted, Positive or Negative, Uncertain or Certain, and Thinking or Feeling? And then, your time orientation, primary sense, and Us and Them. I don’t use that bottom row as much, other than the time orientation (helps me to know if I’m dwelling behind or getting too far ahead of myself).

So, there you have it! You can try it for free for 30 days. If you love it, then you can join after those 30 days. I highly recommend it!

The F Word

An unrelated picture of a rice field in Chiang Rai, Thailand

 "Schweeeet! That is Schweet! Everything is Schweet!" I used to say that. I don't remember where I picked it up, or how long I said it for, but I remember I thought it, and I, were so cool. Instead of "sweet," which normies say, I would add the “sch” sound, "schweet." It had a ring to it that I really loved. I'm actually a little embarrassed by that now. But, since I work with teenagers all the time, I recognize it as totally normal, and weird, teenage behavior.

I don't know when I stopped saying it. I don't remember if I purposely decided to stop using it, or if I just did. But, over the years, I can think of several other words or phrases that I had to choose to stop using. Either they were annoying, inappropriate, or I just caught myself saying it too often.

Well, I'm actively working on eliminating a word from my vocabulary again. I'll tell you what it is soon. But first, let me tell you why I want to stop using it.

This word is a "feeling" word. But, it is just about the vaguest feeling word ever. I notice that I use it in place of other, more specific feeling words. And, I’ve observed a lot of people doing the exact same thing. Actually, I think that most of the time, maybe 80% of the time that this word is used, it is replacing the word "ANGRY." But anger is bad, and scary, and TOO MUCH. So, I use this vague word instead.

Do you know what it is?

Frustrated!

Did you guess, correctly?

The definition of frustration is: "The feeling of being upset or annoyed, especially because of inability to change or achieve something."

And you know what? That's a good word to use sometimes. I think I probably feel frustrated a lot. But, I don't think I feel frustrated as often as I say the word. A lot of times I probably need to say, “That made me angry.” Or, “I feel stuck.” Or possibly even, “I don’t know what that made me feel, but it wasn’t good.”

I am working on being more precise with the words that I use. And, that means that I don’t want to use the word frustrated, unless I know for sure that I am FRUSTRATED!!!