LLTT Newsletter - November 2025 - What you can (and cannot) control
LLTT Newsletter - November 2025
What You Can (And Cannot) Control
How much of your time do you spend frustrated about your progress speed? If you're like most, it's probably too much. The typical learner spends 90% of their mental energy worrying about uncontrollable factors and only 10% optimising what they can actually influence. This month, we're going to explore what you can (and cannot) control on your shorthand journey. Understanding these distinctions should be liberating.
We've also included recommended reading paths at the end — curated selections from our past newsletters that pair well with this month's message.
You cannot control how quickly you'll reach shorthand fluency — only how consistently you practise. Pour everything into your daily drills, your outlines, your muscle memory, and then release your grip on speed benchmarks. The most important advice we can give you is to STOP obsessing over when you will hit 80, 100 or 120 words per minute. You just need to turn up to your work each day, DO THE WORK and let go of what follows. Clinging to wanting a specific speed level you can't force anyway will only breed anxiety. However, committing yourself to the practice — stroke by stroke, outline by outline, however long the mastery takes — brings calm. And that's the type of foundation you need for your shorthand journey.
Most shorthand students perpetually fixate on what they perceive as failure.
"I'm still only writing 60 WPM after three months."
"I can't seem to automate my word groupings."
Worse still, "Others are progressing faster than me."
The internal monologue of self-criticism often culminates in an entirely incorrect conclusion: "I must be stupid" or "I'm just not cut out for this."
However (and you must understand this), significant aspects of your learning timeline lie completely outside your control. This isn't an excuse for poor practice habits or lack of effort — it's simply reality.
Understanding what you cannot control isn't about letting yourself off the hook; it's about directing your energy toward the factors that actually respond to your efforts whilst accepting (with grace!) those that don't. This awareness doesn't just prevent frustration; it changes your relationship with the learning process.
What You CAN Control
The following are all things you can (and should) control — choices that directly influence how you will progress:
How You Practise. The quality of your practice sessions matters far more than the quantity. You control whether you engage in deliberate, focused practice on specific weaknesses or “perform” mindless repetitions of comfortable material. The way you approach practice — thoughtfully or carelessly — shapes everything that follows.
The Amount You Practise. Whilst you cannot control exactly how long learning takes, you DO control whether you practise daily or sporadically, your session duration and frequency, and whether you skip a session when motivation wanes. Shorthand mastery requires consistency, dedication, practice, feedback, and checking your work against the correct version.
Whether You Revisit Challenging Theory. When you struggle with specific outlines or Teeline principles, you alone control whether you seek out the clarification you might need from the theory, drill difficult outlines or sentence fragments in isolation, or ask for help from others when you’re unsure.
Your Response to Plateaus. Everyone (yes, everyone!) hits plateaus. What you control is whether you persist or give up, if you choose to adjust your approach when progress stalls, and whether you maintain a firm belief that you will succeed.
Your Use of Available Resources. You control whether you seek out quality dictation materials, study from the right sources, or find or even create your own practice materials.
Your Overall Practice Approach. You control whether you balance prepared and unprepared dictation appropriately, break down challenging passages through analytical study, focus on bottleneck elimination, and track YOUR progress systematically.
Your Learning Environment: You control when you practise (morning alertness vs. evening fatigue, or vice versa), where you practise (quiet focus vs. numerous distractions), and whether you choose to eliminate interruptions during your study time.
What You CANNOT Control
These are the realities you must accept. They are factors that vary from person to person and cannot be forced:
Exactly When Your "Breakthrough" Will Arrive. People vary enormously in how quickly they pick up a physical and mental skill like shorthand. Research confirms what instructors have observed for decades: some students will progress twice as fast as others, even when they're practising the same amount with the same materials. Some learners achieve 100 WPM in six months. Others need eighteen months. Both timelines reflect normal, successful learning — just at different paces. Accept that what is, is. You cannot force yourself to accelerate beyond your individual learning trajectory.
The Development of the Mind-Hand Connection. Shorthand isn't just about knowing what to write — it's about the connection between your hand and your brain. That's a neurological process that takes time and is different for everyone. This happens in three stages: Early on, you make big improvements but must think consciously about every outline. In the middle stage, you make fewer mistakes and your speed becomes more consistent. In the advanced stage, the outlines flow without thinking — your hand knows what to do. Your brain gradually learns to merge individual movements into smooth, flowing sequences. This happens unconsciously over time and you CANNOT force it along through sheer willpower.
Individual Differences in Learning Capacity. Different brains are wired differently. Research shows working memory — how much information you can hold and manipulate in your mind at once — can directly affect how quickly you learn a physical skill.
How Long It Takes to Automate Specific Patterns. Getting an outline "mostly right" happens fairly quickly. Getting it "always right" takes longer. You might nail a particular word grouping eight times out of ten within a few weeks. But getting to where you write it correctly 19 times out of 20 — where it flows without conscious thought — can take months. Again, the jump from "pretty good" to "completely automatic" cannot be rushed.
The Consolidation Process. Your brain doesn't just learn whilst you're practising. Believe it or not, it also “learns” whilst you are at rest. Research shows that after practising, your brain needs at least six hours to properly consolidate what you've learned. This only happens when you are away from practice. Sometimes the best thing you can do for your learning is stop practising and let your brain rest.
Your Natural Aptitudes. Research shows that certain mental abilities — how quickly you process information, how well you notice errors, and, again, how much you can hold in working memory — can vary significantly between people. Rest assured that whatever your particular abilities are, you will bring your own unique set of mental strengths to your shorthand.
Why Students Don't Consider These Factors (But Should)
Here's a pattern we see repeatedly: A student practises diligently for three months. They follow all the advice and maintain consistency. Then they encounter someone who reached 100 WPM in the same timeframe whilst they're still at 50 or 60 WPM.
Their immediate conclusion? "I'm doing something wrong. I'm not smart enough. I should give up."
What they don't consider is the other person might have working memory capacity in the 95th percentile, previous experience with musical instruments (which develops similar motor sequencing), a neurological processing speed that happens to suit rapid motor learning, or a consolidation process that works more quickly.
None of this makes them "better" or "smarter." It only makes them different.
The shorthand community — like most skill-learning communities — tends to highlight the outliers whilst remaining silent about the realities that create them. This silence creates a significant misconception: that learning speed equals intelligence, dedication, or worth.
It emphatically does NOT.
Your learning timeline is not a moral judgement. It's a reality, as neutral as your height or your eye colour.
A person who achieves 100 WPM in six months isn't necessarily putting in more effort than someone who needs twelve months — they just possess a different neurological foundation for this specific skill.
Understanding Isn't the Same as Excusing
Recognising what you can't control doesn't mean abandoning what you can. You still need to practise consistently, maintain proper technique, and work intelligently.
What changes is where you direct your judgement. Instead of berating yourself for a timeline you cannot control, you need to hold yourself accountable for the things you can: showing up daily, practising with focus, drilling your weak spots, and persisting through plateaus.
Your learning speed compared to others is meaningless — you're working with different brains. But the quality of your thoughts, of your efforts and of your own practice? That's entirely on you, and that's where your standards belong.
The Wisdom of Acceptance
Stop asking: "Why am I not at 100 WPM yet?" Start asking: "Am I practising in ways that optimise my individual learning?"
Stop thinking: "I should be progressing faster." Start thinking: "I'm making steady progress within my control."
Stop comparing: "Others reached this speed in three months." Start focusing: "My timeline is my own, and I'm moving forward."
Practical Applications
Focus Your Energy on the Controllables. Design practice sessions with clear objectives. Identify your specific bottlenecks through analytical review. Balance prepared study with unprepared testing. Seek feedback from experienced writers. Maintain consistent practice habits regardless of motivation. Study theory thoroughly. Use the very best available resources.
Accept the Uncontrollables with Grace. If you only remember one thing about this month’s content, let it be this: Recognise your learning timeline is uniquely yours. Trust the process. Allow time for consolidation between practice sessions. Do not (PLEASE!) judge your progress against anyone else. You must understand that automaticity generally develops gradually and then all at once. You can only fail if you give up.
When you focus exclusively on what you can control, several things happen: frustration decreases because you stop fighting reality; motivation increases because you see genuine results from your efforts; progress accelerates because your practice becomes more effective; confidence builds because you trust the process.
“You're Not Behind. You’re Not Failing. You CAN do this.”
If you're reading this whilst feeling discouraged about your progress, here's what you need to hear:
You are not stupid. You are not inadequate. You are not "bad at shorthand."
The shorthand learners who ultimately succeed aren't always those with the fastest initial progress. They are the ones who consistently control what they can control, patiently accept what they cannot, maintain their practice through both rapid gains and frustrating plateaus, and refuse to interpret natural variation as personal failure.
Your individual timeline for reaching 60 WPM, 100 WPM, or any other speed goal cannot be predetermined. The only thing to concern yourself with is to focus on your commitment to practise intelligently, consistently, and with a proper understanding of how motor learning actually works.
Some students will get there quickly. Some won’t. Both groups WILL get there, IF they keep going. The only difference is the journey length — not the destination, not their intelligence, not their worth as learners.
So stop judging yourself by factors outside your control. Start honouring yourself for the factors within it.
If you're showing up, practising thoughtfully, and persisting despite plateaus, you're doing everything right. The rest is just your brain doing what it does — at its own pace, in its own way.
Work with what you can control. Accept what you cannot. If you can do that, progress becomes inevitable.
Do not underestimate yourself and what you can do.
Recommended Reading Paths
PATH 1: For Students Feeling Stuck or Discouraged
Start here if you're frustrated with your progress or comparing yourself to others
Why: Confronts fear of judgement and self-criticism head-on
The Critical Role of Enthusiasm
Why: Addresses perseverance when enthusiasm wanes and normalises struggle
The Learning and Maintenance Phases of Teeline
Why: Explains why progress stalls and how learning phases differ
How to Think Quickly in Teeline
Why: Discusses plateaus and the importance of refining technique over pushing speed
PATH 2: For Students Ready to Optimise Their Practice
Start here if you want to make your practice time more effective
Why: The foundational piece on building sustainable practice systems
Naive Practice vs. Purposeful Practice
Why: Distinguishes mindless repetition from deliberate improvement
The Prepared Dictation Advantage
Why: Shows how to practise smarter with prepared materials
Why: Helps you identify and work on weaknesses rather than just drilling
Common Practice Habits That Might Not Lead to the Outcome You Want
Why: Lists specific bad habits to avoid
PATH 3: For Students Working on Mindset and Agency
Start here if you want to take ownership of your learning journey
Why: Discusses taking control and working smarter, not just harder
Why: Brief but powerful on disciplined vs. undisciplined thinking
Why: Process-oriented mindset over outcome fixation
Be sure to visit us at the LLTT Website, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Quizlet and Soundcloud.
If you’re looking for Teeline reading practice, Skill Building Through Reading 📗 - is available for purchase online.
Much work (and ❤️!) has gone into this 48 page, 6x9 softcover book:
Five 5️⃣ carefully selected passages: Improve your sight 👁️ recognition of outlines and word groupings.
Dual Format: Each passage includes both printed Teeline and the longhand ✍️ transcription.
Proven Learning Approach: Reading printed 🖨️ shorthand is a method long-favoured by skilled practitioners.
Whether you're a student, journalist, or professional seeking to improve your note-taking, this book will be a valuable addition to your Teeline learning resources.
To order, please visit the book’s landing page or respond to this email with any questions.
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A Parting Thought
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