Introducing 100 Wins
I feel like I’ve been losing. A tough couple of months has knocked me about. I often find myself losing more than winning. As I write this, my iPhone cord has just been burnt by my candle. Be right back, saving the house.
The truth is I haven’t been solely losing. I’m sure I’ve won more than lost. However human nature conspires for us to focus on the negatives. And when you are down and out you focus on the hard parts, the moments of struggle, the losses.
It occurs to me, that terrific and terrible originate from the same word. And no, I haven’t fact-checked. You however believed it.
Terrible and terrific are both formed from the same root word — terror. Both words originally had the meaning of terror-inducing. However terrific took a strange turn at the beginning of the 20th century and ended up meaning great, not terrible or terror-inducing at all. Ironic hey?
I want to change the focus. Instead focusing on the wins.
Can a person track their wins?
Honestly not sure.
Is it good to track one’s wins?
That’s what I am attempting to find out. An experiment if you will.
My plan is to document my wins until I reach 100. I would like to write it in a weekly article. It could be solely one win, or several until I reach 100.
I won’t be worrying about the losses instead attempting to take them in my stride. However, they may feature to illustrate the wins.
The only thing that qualifies it as a win is if I deem it to be. Can be big or small.
I’d like to these wins to come off as lessons, inspiration and or fun. In turn, making you think about your own wins more than your losses. I want it to feel like sitting, chatting and having coffee with a friend.
Which leads me to my first win. And only win for this edition.
1. Sat at a cafe a little earlier than I had planned to meet a friend. I try to read but the loud voices bouncing off the cafe walls reverberate around my sensitive ears, causing me to put the book down. Living in small places has made me somewhat allergic to loud noises. Go figure. I pull out my laptop and begin to work on my novel, the last sentence stares back at me, half-finished and I plot away slowly. I can write anywhere, which is to say the loudness of the cafe dissipates with the words. I look up, at four older gentlemen, sitting and catching up over their coffee and I think of my long-term mates, thinking that will one day be us.
I can’t formulate the next sentence, and I sit stuck for 10 minutes, I get a call from my girlfriend. I go back to writing. My friend Barney turns up, and I try to throw down three more words.
Barney and I chat about life, being an artist and what art is, our struggles, relationships and families. I admire his passion, voice and how he can say the hard thing. Challenging the thoughts of myself and others. The more I spend time with the man, I can’t help but think that’s why we connect in the way we do. Two and half hours pass in a blink. The noise of the cafe didn’t exist during that time, I wonder if we were in a flow of sorts. We hug goodbye and I go home. Sit down and write again. After sitting to write, time is absorbed into what feels like nothing and I’m hovering above my computer.
A beautiful little chat, talking about our favourite things with a friend is what I call a win.
Get a coffee with that friend.
