How to stay MOTIVATED when learning ENGLISH | 5 ground rules

Hey, welcome. It's Hadar and today we're gonna talk about the ground rules

that will help you stay motivated when you're

learning English, especially if you're

learning English on your own.

So you all know this - when you're embarking on a new

journey, when you're starting something new, whether it's starting to learn a new

language, or starting to work out, or go on a new diet, then we start strong. We're

very motivated. Things are working well for us until they don't anymore, until we

get discouraged, until the body starts resisting the change and until we start

saying to ourselves, "I don't see results so maybe I'm not really good at it.

Maybe I just can't do it. I'm not good at learning languages. Working out, it's just

not for me." So here's the thing - it's very natural for us to stay in our comfort

zone. It's human nature to resist change. It's scary.

We don't know what's out there, right? It doesn't feel right to fail and to make

mistakes, but here's the thing: that's the only way to reach your goals, to see

results and to achieve the things that you want to achieve, especially with

language learning. So the way I see it is that if you're learning on your own, you

have to do a few things deliberately, or you have to keep a few ground rules

that will help you stay motivated and do it for the long run. So here are my five

ground rules to staying motivated when learning a new language, especially

English.

Number one: You have to remember your 'why'. Learning English is not the goal.

Learning English is the means to reach your true goals. What are your true goals?

Now, I really want you to dig deep and to think what are the things that you wish

for yourself that you know that you need English for. Is it changing your job or a

position in the company? Would you like to manage teams or teach

people? Do you want to speak in public more? Right? What are the things and there

are no dreams that are too big. Okay? So think big right now. I want you to think

big and really visualize yourself and what would you do if English was not an

obstacle, if you had perfect English, and I want you to remind yourself of that

every single time before you start learning. Visualize yourself in that

position, in that country, doing that thing, speaking to the people you want to

speak with, before you're starting. So you have to be very specific and focused

about what you really wish for yourself because when you visualize it and you

see it, it stimulates you and that feeling, that excitement that you feel

will get you passionate about the next 10 minutes, 15 minutes, hour and a half

that you are learning, that you're studying because the actual work is

boring. What you're going to achieve is the interesting part. So you have to

always remind yourself what is your 'why'. Why are you learning English? When I go

online and research for English learning materials I find the materials so

incredibly boring. I mean, I see these dialogues and they're like, no one speaks

like that. It feels like it's meant for kids and the situations and the quizzes

have all these silly sentences. No, I'm not saying you can't use silly sentences,

but when you do it over and over again it doesn't really trigger anything

intellectual in your brain and then you get bored and when you get bored you get

discouraged and frustrated and then you think it's your fault. So do

the things that interest you. So I'm recommending for you to become a bit

more creative and engaged in creating the materials that you're using to learn.

Learning English does not have to be learning from online resources for

English learners and the Internet is packed with materials in English -

podcasts, articles, books, YouTube videos, Facebook groups that encourage

conversation. So instead of settling for the simple solution and being a little

lazy about it, you know just downloading quizzes or tasks that are online, create

your own practice exercises. So for example, it could be 'read an article and

mark all the interesting or important words and then create a different text

using these words' or 'listen to a podcast and echo it, repeat it, shadow it' or 'take

a TED talk and try to understand the concept of the talk and then teach it to

someone or speak about it'. Record yourself as if you're teaching someone.

Okay, there are tons of ideas of what you could do. Pick a monologue from a movie

that you really like and memorize it and pretend that you are the actor and do it

full-out in front of a mirror. So do things that interest you and inspire you

and, of course, create situations where you can actually talk to people and

practice your speaking skills because, remember, that that's the most important

thing and talking to people is always, I mean not always, sometimes they can get

boring but talking to interesting people, people that you like in English is the

best way for you to advance and to practice your speaking skills. The third

thing is stay focused and keep the flow. The way we're wired is that when we

start doing things, it doesn't matter what it is whether it's doing your job,

writing something, or practicing your English, it takes time until we get to

the zone. That zone of flow where everything is just, like, coming out of us.

That we lose track of time and things are going really well

and we feel that we're actually doing something, that we're advancing. Now, you

can lose that state of flow and focus like this [snap]. Can you guess how long it

takes you to regain your focus after one small distraction? So let's say you're in

the state of flow, you're doing things really well and then you get distracted.

Do you know how long it takes to get back on track or to get back to the same

focus? Yes, according to a recent research conducted

at the University of California, for most people it takes about 23 minutes and 15

seconds to get back to exactly where you were after one distraction. Oh someone

texted me. Okay let's continue practicing or phone call, "Hey! What's up? No, I'm

practicing my English right now. I'm studying English. I can't talk. So, oh

really? Sally? So cool! Okay, I'll talk to you later." Okay,

where was I? Twenty-three minutes and 15 seconds later, maybe

you'll get back to your flow. Now we do this all the time. We get distracted

all the time, especially with those freaking phones. I know that because when

I write content or when I make videos or when I have to write a complex price

proposal then, whenever it gets difficult challenging when I need to think a

little harder, you know what I do? I look at my phone. I check my Facebook group. I

look for WhatsApp notifications, and then I go back to it, and like you know -

where was I? And you know what I did? I started

putting post-it notes on my computer saying 'If you open Facebook you'll have

less time to sleep.' 'If you open Facebook that means less time with your girls'

because it takes me longer to do it. Now, since you have a period of time where

you can learn so it's not like you deprive yourself of doing other things

but what you do is you don't get into that flow and when you don't get into

that flow, then you don't see the change. You don't feel empowered. You don't feel

like, 'Hey, something's clicking here. This is working for me. Hey, I feel great! I

sound great! I see results. I hear results.' Right, because when you're

don't get into that flow you don't you don't see all that. You don't get all

that and then when you constantly don't see results day-in day-out, then you get

discouraged. Then, you're not gonna stay motivated because we only stay motivated

when we see and feel the change. When you learn English there are a few things

that you need to learn. There is grammar and accent, which there you have

intonation and pronunciation, and all of these things. You know where they are for

you and when you sit down getting ready to learn something then you're like okay

today I'm gonna work on my vocabulary. Now, vocabulary is a huge thing. There is

like so many layers to learning vocabulary. What are you trying to do?

What kind of vocabulary are you trying to learn? Are you trying to learn

vocabulary meaning to learn new words or maybe you're trying to use them in

context. Maybe you want to work on the pronunciation of the words that you

usually don't use. Right? You've got to be very specific about what you're

practicing. So when you're telling to yourself, 'Okay, today my task is to learn

to improve my vocabulary.' Nice, right? And then you're like learning

three words and at the end of the day are like, 'I learned three words and there are

like a billion words in English. This is a very lame. It's like I'm

terrible. I'm so behind. I will never be able to do it'. Because learning

vocabulary is overwhelming and it feels unattainable but when you're saying to

yourself, 'Be specific. Learn food vocabulary.' Or 'Let's learn transition

words' or maybe 'food vocabulary that is related to ordering in restaurants

because I always get stuck in restaurants.' Okay? So this is what you're

trying to achieve. You have X which is like, it's very clear, right, what you're

trying to get and then you can actually do it, but 'enhance

vocabulary' is huge and you won't feel like you can check it off your list

because there's always something to learn but when you say to yourself, 'Okay,

but my goal was to learn just these five six words' I can do it within a week.

Eight? And to learn that means not to know it, but to actually start using it

freely. Okay, then you can say, 'Check, I did it.' You feel accomplished. You feel the

progress. You stay motivated. The last ground rule is make it sustainable. Okay?

So even if you're really passionate at first,

don't start big. Start small but keep it small. Sustain it. Be persistent. The idea

is to do it for the long run. Right? And if you started by saying, 'I'm gonna

practice for two hours every single day', great but not great, because let me tell

you this it's not going to last. It will last for a few weeks, maybe a few months,

but then you'll get into this mode of all-or-nothing, because you got used to

practicing two hours every day and now you don't have those two hours. You have

a new baby, or a new job, or you get bored with it now, it's not interesting to you

anymore, and then another day goes by and you

don't do it. Another day and then you fall off the wagon and it's really hard

to get back on. Okay? Remember that. So instead of practicing a lot at the

beginning, stop yourself. An hour? It's great. It's amazing to practice your

English but 30 minutes is also amazing if you manage to achieve what you set

out for yourself to do and you know what 15 minutes is better than nothing because

it's not all or nothing. So make it sustainable, be persistent and make sure

you're here to do it for the long run. Now, the last thing I recommend for you

to do is - no this is not a ground rule but let's call it friendly advice - I want

you to create a fun and empowering ritual at the end of each practice so

every day at the end of your practice I want you to have the sentence that you

say to yourself. Something like, 'I did well that I sucked. I did well. I'm

improving. Tomorrow I'm going to be even better. I'm gonna kick butt.' Or, you can do

the English learning dance - 'I did it. I did it. I'm speaking. I'm speaking. Who's

speaking? I'm speaking. Who's awesome? I'm awesome. I

learned English.' Whatever works for you but the most important thing is

acknowledge your work, acknowledge your improvement, and to say to yourself that

you are a freaking rock star. To remember that because you're speaking another

language and you cannot take it for granted. Okay? That's it. So now I'm

curious I want you to scroll down and let me know in the comments below what

is your 'why'? Why do you want to become fluent in English? Why would you like to

achieve? What are your your secret goals? And remember there are no dreams that

are too big. So let us know. And also what motivates you? Let's add it up and

let's keep each other motivated. Okay, that's it! Thank you so

much for watching. If you like this video, do not forget to like it or to subscribe

or to share it with your friends. Share the love. Spread the love. I love you.

Thank you so much and I will see you next week in the next video.