A galactic outcome: 6 million words

Reflection: what is it good for? Well, long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I reached a milestone of 6 million words in my 750words account, earning a "Galactic Library" badge. Some people might see this as just this past weekend, which is OK too. But I am going with the galaxy far, far away because it matches with the whole Galactic Library thing. 

How does a galactic library badge relate to reflection? Well (second one), I attended a MOOC in 2015, run by Prof Inger Mewburn of ANU, called "How to Survive your PhD" as part of my PhD preparations. On that course, I was introduced to "morning pages" - or 'morning words' I remember them as - used by authors as a mechanism to holystone the creative decks before commencing their daily professional writing (Cameron, 1992; Mewburn, 2015). As a career practitioner, reflective practice is a key element of learning, processing, and personal development, and writing makes our thought processes concrete (Schippers & Zeigler, 2019). I loved the idea of morning words. An un-judged emptying of trivia: "three pages of longhand writing, strictly stream-of-consciousness" (Cameron, 1992, p. 10). Yes, this was intended to be handwritten, but - for me - I don't think the manual aspect is the key; it is the getting-rid-of that helps. Three pages appears to be the 'magic' volume, translating into a minimum of 750 words.

Well (the third one). While myself and dairy-ing were not close friends, myself and 750words got along like une Maison en feu. I find myself having completed 2816 days of writing since joining up (a 99% success rate), with a streak - unbroken days - of 1619... nearly four and a half years. I have written pretty much every day since I started on the 750words site in 2015, and still find it pretty easy. I thought that having smashed out 6m words was worth celebrating: not for the content, because - while some of it became 'real' writing, a lot of it was just purging - it was the turning up to do it regularly that holds value for me.

I emptied out things that may have festered internally. I worked out what things really meant. I decided what I could let go, and allowed myself to let those things disappear into my rear-vision mirror; to become the past. I decided what I needed to hold onto; and polished them to keep. Filtering out the currents of space (Asimov, 1952) in my head, and holding onto the stars was a truly galactic outcome.

I have written about written reflection (here) and 750words (here), but it is always worth a repeat. Signing up to 750words can be done here, if you are interested in giving this a try. I am fairly sure that, before you sign up, you can read about "The Artist's Way" and get an explanation of morning pages here (Benson & Benson, 2019; Cameron, 1992). 

See what value you may get from your Galactic Library :-)

Sam

References:

Azimov, I. (1952). The Currents of Space. Doubleday & Company, Inc.

Benson, B. & Benson, K. (2019). Hello! Welcome to the shiny and new 750 Words. https://new.750words.com/write

Cameron, J. (1992). The Artist's Way: A spiritual path to higher creativity. Jeremy P. Tarcher/Perigee Books.

Mewburn, I. (2015). How to Survive Your PhD [MOOC]. Australia National University/EdX. https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:ANUx+RSIT-01x+3T2015/info

Schippers, M. C., & Ziegler, N. (2019). Life crafting as a way to find purpose and meaning in life. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2778, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02778