I haven’t always been successful at learning languages.
When I was younger I tried to learn another language several times.
Only to fail every time…and usually faster than Donald Trump can say “tremendous”.
After each failure, it would take years for me to try again.
Failure can hurt, you know. And the hurt would always lead me to the same conclusion:
I just don’t have the discipline to learn another language.
Or so I thought…
It took me a little while to figure out the true culprit:
The real reason I used to fail was that I never realized that failing was part of the process.
Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.
– Chinese Proverb
The most important thing to stay the course is to get back on it.
Sure, it’s nice to have a 100-day streak on Duolingo. But the day comes, and probably sooner than you think, when the streak will be broken.
Then what?
You’ll likely feel demotivated.
You’ll know that you’re not going to get a similar streak going any time soon. So, why bother, right?
This is when motivational tricks turn their backs against you.
I Love it When a Plan Doesn’t Come Together
It’s great to have a plan.
Essential probably…
But when learning on your own with pretty much the freedom to do what you want, it’s inevitable that you fall off the bandwagon sooner or later.
It’s in these moments that most people give up.
And it’s here where you basically decide whether you’re really going to learn your new language or not…
When everything goes well, it’s easy to keep going. But how far you go eventually is determined by what you do when the chips are down.
So what’s it going to be?
Do you grab the first opportunity to relief yourself from the “burden” of learning another language?
Or do you choose to not pay much attention to these negative thoughts and pick yourself back up?
Just know that…
To achieve anything of worth in life, we have to go through the process of falling down and picking ourselves back up…many times.
We always have a choice, but we like to go with the easy option, don’t we?
We do…
But here comes the good news…yee-haw!
Once you realize that falling off the bandwagon is part of the process — usually through experience — getting back on it actually becomes the easy option.