You have it all planned out, don’t you?!
Travel the world, interact with natives, and feel like you’re one of them.
Maybe even emigrate to a sunny place and start a new life there?
Your new language could unlock it all for you.
It’s there for the taking.
The only problem?
You don’t want to learn a language at all.
You want to speak a new language.
But you don’t want to go through the painstaking process of learning one.
To No Longer Be a Loser You Have to Lose First
To learn a language is to fail. Again and again.
The road to fluency is paved with failure.
You fail and you fail … day in and day out.
Occasionally, you experience a small victory.
But reality soon throws you off of your pink cloud with a thud.
And then you have to pick yourself back up… or give up and look for excuses.
Failure hurts.
But it’s a necessary ingredient for growth… for improvement… to get better, stronger.
Language learning is for warriors with a good chin.
You first have to taste the losses to come out victorious later.
If you don’t break while you lay the foundation for fluency, things will get easier.
The better you get, the fewer failures you will experience, and the more you will learn from those failures.
If you want to get rich, you first have to sacrifice, work long hours, and take losses. But once you have money, everything gets easier.
Learning a language follows a similar path.
You dig in, sacrifice, and take blows to the chin… but you keep getting up. Until… everything gets better and the world of your new language opens up for you.
Those suckers that want to converse with native speakers from day one? They want the reward… without doing the work.
But in language learning there is no warp zone like in the Mario games. This is real life, baby.
Nothing in this world is free.
Want something?
You need to work to get it.
Commit or Fail Anyway
If you’ve been planning to learn a new language for ages but never get around to it…
It’s because you’re afraid to commit.
You’re afraid of the responsibility that comes with it.
Your subconscious mind thinks that when you don’t commit you cannot fail. In reality, you’re already failing if you don’t commit.
Not committing is certainly easier; more comfortable. You can keep telling yourself you’ll get to it someday.
But it’s not just the fear of failure that keeps you on the fence.
It’s also: the fear of success.
When you’re just starting to learn a new language, you only stand to benefit.
You learn your first foreign words, and you’re over the moon.
But once you know a thing or two in your new language, you’ll also have to protect the language you’ve already learned.
If you learn something new, you’d better practice it or you’ll lose it. You have to use it in some way, or you’ll forget it.
It’s an extra responsibility.
A heavy burden for some, unless:
- You really want the reward of being able to speak another language.
- You’re ready to make something of your life; ready to achieve.
That changes everything.
Now… you want to enter the arena.
You are ready for the fight. Ready to learn… to experience… to develop your character… and to reap the benefits that come with that.
So if you decide you’re up for it, know that:
Your Work Is Never for Nothing, Inactivity Is
Because with the right mindset you can learn from any experience.
What’s the right mindset?
The mindset of action, of bravery, of growth through trial and error. You learn from the struggle; you get better through it, stronger.
But not doing anything — because doubt is creeping up on you — IS useless.
You stay idle.
Trapped in the moment.
No learning… no growth… no new language to speak with native speakers… no deep travel experiences.
Action is the name of the game. Commit, struggle, learn, and improve. Fall flat on your ass… and get back up… again and again.
Then someday, seemingly out of the blue, you’ll realize your work has paid off.
You speak your new language. You can converse, and you understand most of what’s been thrown at you.
You’ve made it.
But don’t rest on your laurels.
There’s always more to get your head around…
And you’ve got to defend what you’ve gained.
If you don’t use it, you can lose any language you speak. Even your native language.
You Don’t Have to Love It to Do It
If you want language learning to always be fun, go waste your time playing video games instead.
Think hyperpolyglots like to learn languages?
They like the results. And they’ve learned to appreciate certain aspects of the learning process.
But it sure ain’t no entertainment. Not to them, not to you, and not to me.
You learn a language for the results. They’re your motivation, your fire, and your passion.
You put up with the learning process and the negativity it sometimes stirs up in you, because the results of your labour will be amazing and potentially life-changing.
Why do you think many people who’ve learned a new language go on to learn another? The results seduce them into learning more languages.
So no, you don’t want to learn a language.
You want the results.
And for them to brighten your life, you need to accept this truth first.
Once you do, everything will become easier…
You won’t be battling two conflicting forces anymore. No more “I must like this to succeed” VS “I hate to do this sh*t.”
You will free up all the energy wasted in vain desperately trying to love the language learning process.
You don’t love it!
And you don’t have to.
That’s liberating in and of itself.
You just do your job and get after the results you want. Grinding away so you can reap the incredible benefits later.
So… are you ready?
Cool…
Time to get back to your target language, now…
Over and out,
Noel