The Steno Life
Issue #14 - Part 2 of 3

This edition is Part 2 of 3 parts.  I've broken it down because the main article is so long.  It touches on the same subjects that I discussed in a previous issue of The Steno Life, but takes things to the next level and adds more.  Kind of like an extended dance remix.  Everyone likes those, right?!  It's the NCRA seminar that will never happen.  And there are other goodies as well!  As always, please don't email me about spelling or punctuation errors.  I appreciate it, but I'm writing this for content, not an English class.

Past issues of The Steno Life - Issue 1 Issue 2 Issue 3 Issue 4 Issue 5 Issue 6 Issue 7 Issue 8 Issue 9 Issue 10 Issue 11 Issue 12 Issue 13

Articles in this issue -

1 - "Steno Contests - Prizes!"
2 - "The NCRA Presentation You'll Never See - Part 2!"
3 - "PracticeTracker Steno Program!"

Steno Contest! (back to top)

Our first contest was to see who could come up with the best punch line to - How many court reporters does it take to screw in a light bulb?  And we have TWO winners - Monique J and Sonja M!  I had to pick two, since Monique's made me laugh the most, but wasn't so much related to court reporting : )

Sonja's -
Question - How many court reporters does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Answer - None. Court Reporters can do it in the dark.

Monique's -
Question - How many court reporters does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Answer - Just two...that is, if you can find a light bulb big enough for them to screw in.

So congrats to both of them - they each get a 3-year subscription to www.StenoFun.com!  For our next contest, I'm going to give you three word-related questions.   Of all the correct entries, I will randomly pick a winner.  You have till March 24th to email me your answers.  Send them to Marc@Stenolife.com with "StenoLife Word Quiz" in the subject line.  Here's are the questions -

1 - What word in the English language has the most definitions - different meanings?
2 - What is the only word in the English language that has 3 letters repeated in a row - like rrqqpp (no proper names)?
3 - What verb, when the first letter is taken and moved to the back, become a past tense of the same verb?  Example - swim to wims wouldn't be correct, but you get the idea.

Get your word hat on and start emailing me your answers!  The winner will be announced in the next issue.  The prize will be the framed picture below!

The NCRA Presentation You'll Never See - Part 2! (back to top)

(Please understand that much of what you will read below is written for comedic effect (if you laugh). If you don’t laugh…it’s meant to be serious)

When I last left you, I had just finished speaking about the myth of the "magic pill."  At that point, I'm assuming the audience would have risen to their feet and cheered.  Then a brief laser show.  Then I would continue on...

1 – Keeping Up With the Stenos – I once had the opportunity to go to a tennis clinic coached by a very famous tennis player.  For legal reasons, I'll call him Blondre Blaggasi.  I'm not the greatest player in the world, but I have some skills.  So I decided to focus on my serve, since that's the most constant stroke - you're always starting from the same spot and repeating the same motion (in a perfect world).  So we went over the stroke about a billion times.  I watched his toss.  I watched his motion.  I watched his delivery.  Then I gave it a shot.  In my mind, it was the same toss, motion and delivery.  Yet somehow, his serve blasted into the serving box at 130 miles per hour, whereas my serve limped in at about 100 miles per hour.

On the last day of the serving seminar, they had a contest for speed, accuracy and motion.  Guess who won?!  Yeppers - me.  But I was still serving at about 100 miles per hour.  I wasn't very content with that.  After all, Blondre Blaggasi was serving at 130!  And I had the feeling he was holding back.

It was only when I got home that I really had time to think about things.  First off, tennis was Blondre's life.  He ate, slept and pooped tennis.  His whole life was designed around it.  He had the time to invest.  He had the upbringing that focused on it.  He had the support of those around him.  He had the natural ability.  What did I have?  I had some skill...some time to invest.  In fact, I was probably on the same level, as far as what I put into tennis, as those who were paying to be there with me at the clinic.  Yet I wasn't comparing myself to them.  I was comparing myself to Blondre! 

I made many dumb moves.  First, I was comparing myself to Blondre.  Instead of learning what I could from him and feeling good about my developing skills, I was fighting the acceptance that he would ALWAYS be better than I was.  He has a gift.  There are always people who are going to be better at some skill.  That doesn't mean I can't be content with, and succeed with, the skill I have.  Second, I wasn't even thinking about all the other people there with me.  I was better than most of them at this skill.  I had worked hard for it.  And finally, MY BIGGEST MISTAKE WAS COMPARING MYSELF TO ANYONE!

We all have boundaries, both physical and mental.  And the best thing we can do is press ourselves to reach those boundaries, and even push them if we can.  Those are OUR boundaries - not those of the person next to us.  You can only move as fast as YOU are able.  You can only write as fast as YOU are able.  We are not clones - we don't all have the same DNA design.

You've all heard about the student that zipped through school in 16 months, right?  And the one who flew through in 2 years?  Kinda makes you feel like a loser, right?  Huh?!?!  Those are the exceptions to the rule, people!  How about the student that fought through school in 7 years?  9 years?  What do you make of them?  The comparison game is one you can't win.  Because you can't just compare yourself to the person on your left.  Not fair.  You also have to compare yourself to the person on your right.  And you can't just compare the speeds and time in a program.  You have to compare home lives, study time, support, money, work schedules, family obligations, education background....shall I go on?

Like I said, no one wins in the comparison game.  You have one person you have to live up to.  You.  You know if you're living up to your steno potential.  You know if you're putting in the work.  And you know if you're being realistic regarding the progress you can make, given the circumstances you have.  You only fail when you don't live up to your personal steno potential.  And no other student has any bearing on what your potential is.  Words of wisdom I got from an agency owner years ago - "Don't count other people's money."  True enough.

And for the record, the fastest I've ever PERSONALLY seen a student go through a program is about 2 years.  She had a history of piano playing (which helps), she practiced religiously (and intelligently) and was wired for steno - she had the steno gene : )  The same year she graduated school, another student graduated as well - one who had been there 8 years.  The second student worked two jobs and practiced when she could.  They BOTH lived up to their steno potential and they are both now very successful reporters.  So now it's time for you to live up to your potential!

2 – Equal Shmequal – I'm gonna let you in on a little secret.  I drive a 2001 Ford Focus.  It's a good car and it does the job it's supposed to do.  My neighbors drive a 2007 BMW Z4 Coupe 3.  It's basically the same thing.  The cars are interchangeable really.  Both have 4 tires - an engine - doors - metal.  But I really feel bad for my neighbor, because he paid about $40,000 more than I did for his car!  Sucker!  I mean...they're the same thing, right?  Both cars?

Okay...we all know that's not the case.  While they are both cars in name, there's a vast difference as to how they are presented and what they offer.  Yet many students want to compare dictations on the same level.  "They're all dictations, so they all have the same value."  Not so much.  I can find you two books with the same amount of pages - would you say they're the same book?  Dictations, even those in the same speed, have different values.

Let's start with 2-voice and 4-voice.  How would you equate a slip-and-fall case to an expert witness?  Same speed - same readers - but not the same value.  One is basic with familiar material, while the other is guaranteed to have technical words, names, years and other unfamiliar material.  So why would you expect to do just as well on both?  Then throw in the fact that some have a quick back-and-forth rhythm (popcorn dictation), while others have a short question with a long answer.  They may be the same overall speed - words per minute - but you can't say they carry the same tempo.

How about 1-voice dictations?  You have your jury charges, congressional material and lits (everything else).  There's a reason that they test the jury charge at 200 and the lit at 180 on the RPR exam.  Simply put, lit is harder!  It tends to be more dense with fewer opportunities for using briefs.  Would you rather write, "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury" or "Mr. President, the union of contemporary..." on your steno machine?  The good news is that you'll get to write both!  And you NEED to write both.  You need exposure to every kind of speaking style and content.  Familiarity in what you hear speeds up the writing process.  Your brain doesn't hesitate as much when it hears something it's heard before.

"Why do I have such a hard time with lit?"  That's the question I get weekly, and I think I've answered it.  It's dense.  It's random.  It's less familiar.  Yet you need to hear it and test on it.  You need to be able to keep your nerves in check, even when you hear a tough dictation.  That's why you need them as tests as well.  You need that exposure.

Understand that I'm not giving you an escape route here - "It was dense - that's why I didn't get it."  I'm telling you that you're goal should be in line with the job you're attempting to accomplish.  You were not meant to pass every lit you take, but there is the goal to write up to your personal ability.  That's the real test - writing up to your personal ability.  If you can do that on every dictation you hear, you've succeeded!

2 – DoItDoItDoItDoIt! – I had an interesting upbringing with several step moms to deal with.  Seems my dad really liked to get married, but wasn't really fond of staying married.  I'm happy to say he's married now to a wonderful woman, and I assume he will be for a long time.  But there was one benefit to having several mothers - I heard some of the same advice from different sources.  And some actually stuck with me!  When I was young, I heard, "If your head wasn't attached to your body, you'd lose it" a lot!  I had a horrible memory (still do).  And two of my step moms had the same advice for me.  Patterns.  I needed to create patterns.  If I had trouble finding my school books, I had to create the pattern of walking into the house and putting them on a shelf.  "Do that for 3 weeks and it will become a good habit."  My bedtime ritual - "Take your shower - get in your pajamas - brush your teeth and hair."  And if I deviated from that pattern, I'd find myself lost, brushing my pajamas in the shower. 

As an adult I've created patterns as well - both physical and emotional.  My thought process is that if you do something enough times in a row, it becomes a part of you.  That becomes the norm.  Bill Courtland always used to say, "Practice doesn't make perfect.  Practice makes permanent!"  So it's important that the patterns you repeat are the proper patterns.

And one of the best patterns you can create for yourself comes into play when testing.  Here goes...are you sitting down?  Write - transcribe - proof - turn in.  Write - transcribe - proof - turn in.  Write - transcribe - proof - turn in.  Now just the ladies!  Now just the men!  Now raise your hands in the air like you just don't care!  Write - transcribe - proof - turn in. 

So Marc, why is that a good pattern?  Fine question.  The simple reason - it takes away options that don't help you.  Most of you have been there before.  You're writing to a test and hit a rough spot.  You then know at that point that you probably can't pass the test, then give it so-so effort from there.  Or even worse, you proceed to practice that word that tripped you up over and over and over till the test is done.  BUT...if you knew you had to transcribe, proof and turn in that test, you probably wouldn't be doing that.  You'd want to make your transcript as clean as possible, so the rest of the process would be less painful.

Write - transcribe - proof - turn in.

When throwing the test away is not an option, you tend to write smarter.  You build up your testing toughness.  And perhaps the most important point, you don't quit.  When you start a test, your only option is to finish that test.  And you may pass it.  You may not.  That's not the issue.  You just need to write up to your personal ability to succeed.  But if you never finish, you don't give yourself that chance.  When you sit down for a state exam, remove giving up from the equation by creating your testing habit - write - transcribe - proof - turn in.  Again?  Write - transcribe - proof - turn in.  Now move your hands to the riiiiiight!  And move your bodies to the leeeeeeeeft!  Sorry.

PART 3 COMING IN A FEW WEEKS

PracticeTracker Steno Program! (back to top)

I put out the beta version of the PracticeTracker a couple years ago and it worked well...for some...but not everyone.  So I'm happy to announce that it's back and working well!  The program allows you to plan or track your practice sessions.  You input your practice schedule on the date you want and it's stored for you when you close the program.  It's a great way to build practice structure!  It comes on CD - you move it do your desktop and it's ready to roll - nothing to install.

The program is $21 HERE ONLY.  Once I put it on my websites, it will cost more.  All updates are free once you buy it and it's available now.  You can see images of the program below and use the PayPal image below them to order.

Click the image below to order through PayPal!

Thanks!
Marc Greenberg

SimplySteno.com
SpeedBuilders.com
RPRPrep.com
CSRPrep.com
RMRPrep.com
StenoFun.com
StenoWatchdog.com