Thought Transcription: The Self Improvement Trend of the Future
When’s the last time you spoke your thoughts out loud? Better yet: when’s the last time you read your thoughts to yourself?
With industry leaders like Joanna Penn encouraging serial writers to dictate their books, we’ve been happy to see more and more people coming to us asking us to transcribe their dictation. It’s fantastic! We love working to help more writers produce the work that compels them.
We at CastingWords are excited for another, related trend to emerge in 2018: Thought dictation and transcription as a self-help tool.
You know all those random thoughts you have throughout the day? Passing thoughts, random ones, remembered dreams, things that seem silly or at times even a little painful? Those may be the keys to unlocking your mental health’s full potential.
Photo by Felipe P. Lima Rizo on Unsplash
Thought patterns are one of the biggest indicators of mental health in the human psyche. If our thoughts have a common negative theme, it can be a sign of rumination, a potentially destructive thought pattern where fixation on distressing issues occupies an unhealthy portion of a person’s normal thoughts. Persistently negative thoughts can also serve as an indicator of depression or other mental illnesses.
The hard part is being objective about our own thoughts. How are we supposed to find patterns in our own thoughts if we can’t be objective? Our answer: Thought transcription.
Sound silly? If you have a smartphone, try recording your random thoughts for one week. Just one week!
Next time you think of something you don’t want to forget, or a revelation comes to you while doing something random (we’ve all had those shower thoughts!), take a moment and record it. Try to keep all your sound files in one folder if possible.
Once you hit the one week mark, send it along for transcription. We recommend our low-cost Budget service if you’re in no hurry. Or, if you want the transcription in time for a coaching or therapist appointment, our One-Week or Next-Day transcription services provide the same solid product.
Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash
Once you have the transcript, read through and highlight things that stand out to you about your own thoughts. What phrases keep coming up? What topics?
It’s much easier to sort through one’s thoughts without judgement if they’re on a sheet of paper. You can be much more objective when judging written words than listening to a recording. We all want to be kind to ourselves, but that doesn’t always lead to the most constructive growth.
Free of any self-editing or hindsight that can sneak into personal journaling, a transcript provides an honest and objective look into your thoughts at any given time. If you’re working toward a personal goal, it can provide insight into what may be holding you back or tripping up your progress—or document how far you’ve come!
With recording technology more accessible than ever, thought transcription is set to become the journaling method of the future. Having an unbiased record of your thoughts can be a wonderful tool in tracking your own personal progress toward your goals and CastingWords is here to provide the tools and information you need to keep the record straight.