Yesterday was my youngest daughter’s day to shine. And shine she she did.
You see..
30 or so teenagers, including Leah, were part of the Cactus program. An army-style boot camp running for the past 8 weeks.
No… it’s not one of those “troubled teens” ones.
These young people are motivated to apply for this one themselves because of the team leadership and various learning opportunities on offer. Plus…
It’s designed to stretch them to their limits.
It’s organized by our local police crew. Who are all simply legends. Really community minded.
And — along with a heap of other volunteers from the community — they all do this kind of stuff for the love of it. Because they’ve seen the huge impact on so many young people who have done this before.
So on Sunday, we were out there watching fires be put out… sandbag “people” being carried on stretchers… and cheering on shattered looking souls running up steep country hills.
It also meant that mum and dad were out running around all over the countryside too.
Including carting a small horde of our girl’s friends around in our car so they could watch as well.
The finish of this very looong day brought proud parent moments for many families.
For us too. Because at the awards dinner Leah won 2 of the 6 special awards: Top girl in the physical tests. And best at drill.
Proud parents, indeed. 😊
So… yesterday was busy.
And because I ain’t no extrovert, it made the day feel even longer and busier!
The consequences of this (along with a stupid wakeup time of 2am this morning!) is that…
I’m just tired today.
And energy? … What’s that?
So when I sat down to write this email, with not much in the tank… I was just drawing a blank on what to write.
Now I’m NOT short of ideas. I have a zillion of them staring back at me from my email ideas list. (Never fear my friends… there’ll be plenty more of — hopefully! — good stuff coming your way.)
But these ideas take some research to work with first. And research takes… energy.
So… funny thing… when I sat down to write I was just going to give you my “goto” supreme copout…
“This email is probably going to be short — just one of those days I’m having… blah, blah, blah…”.
But… here we are, 400 words in (give or take)… so not doing too bad, eh? 😎
Although, I admit:
I used a handy “trick” to get started.
Well more of a tip that might come in handy if you’re also hit with a low energy time. And you’re thinking of tap… tap… tapping away on your keyboard.
Nothing fancy…
And… NO IT’S NOT CHATGPT!!!!!!
I simply used the dictation feature of Microsoft Word. And spoke what was on my mind.
(Also phones and just about any device will help with this kind of dictation nowadays.)
Sure, I ended up with a blob of text in a few paragraphs. And boy… does it ever mangle some sentences.
But, you know…
It was enough to get started.
And hey… I like editing.
So here I am now… with probably 80-90% of the words not the same as the original. But… we DO have something on the page.
And that’s what matters!
This little tip is something I think I’ll use again when energy is a bit low.
It’s as simple as…
- Open Microsoft Word (or some other dictation program).
- Speak your mind.
- Edit like crazy.
When it comes to daily email… I’ve now discovered that this is a great way to get started writing.
Maybe it’s even alternative medicine for the common ailment of “writer’s block”.
So far for writing my emails, just starting with a blank page has worked fine on my higher energy days.
And I expect I’ll keep writing like that (with this tip in my back pocket).
Ready to build your email list? Go here…
EmailForTheWin.com
Chris Milham