Why Motivation Isn't Important For Learning English

Do you sometimes feel demotivated and even  think about giving up learning English? 

Well then this lesson is going  to help you to keep on learning  

even when you don't have much motivation. And to help we've divided this lesson  

into 4 topics: first, we'll take a  look at what's behind motivation. 

Then we'll take a look at why motivation  isn't that essential for learning English. 

Then we'll look at no motivation, no  learning and whether or not that's true. 

And then compare and don't despair, and  by the way in case you're new here we are  

here to guide you beyond the classroom to live  and learn and speak English in the real world. 

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because of the amazing positive energy. So be sure to hit that Subscribe Button  

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So let's first take a look at what's  behind motivation and the difference  

between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. So intrinsic motivation is something within you,  

it's inside of you, it's very personal. This  is something that makes your heart beat faster. 

Whereas extrinsic motivation is more to do  with external sources. Maybe you anticipate  

some sort of reward like money or fame  or praise when you first think of it. 

Relying on extrinsic motivation might seem  quite appealing. However it's probably not  

the best source of motivation when embarking on a  long-term project such as learning a new language. 

So for example you might think of the idea  of buying yourself something nice when you  

complete a task, maybe you buy yourself a  nice new set of pens or a notebook and at  

that time that's going to give you some momentary  euphoria, but it's not going to last very long. 

However if you actually enjoy the task itself,  chances are you're going to stick to it longer. 

For example, if you think about a doctor  telling you that you should walk every day  

because it's good for your health you're  going to feel like it's an obligation,  

like it's something you have to do. Whereas if you actually enjoy going out  

walking it's not going to feel that way and you're  probably going to stick to it for much longer. 

So what you actually need to do here is shift  your focus and take responsibility for your  

actions. This is going to give you lots of  power from within so you can develop your  

intrinsic motivation in many ways. You can find ways of learning that  

you enjoy that are fun, like watching these  videos on RealLife English and also watching  

our lessons on Learn English with TV Series. You could find ways to measure your progress,  

so that you can see how far along on your  journey you've come and you can even set yourself  

challenges that are going to motivate you too. Some other ways that might help you are not  

believing the myths that people tend  to believe are true when learning  

English and if you'd like to know more about  that I highly recommend you check out this  

lesson I made by clicking up here or down in  the description box below to watch it next.

Seth Godin said, "Fail multiple  times until you get it right." 

Now he said this in a business context, however  it really applies to learning English too. 

In order to acquire a language it takes a  repetition, it takes making mistakes and  

it takes multiple exposure to the language. You also need to have a positive mindset,  

so you shouldn't be afraid of making mistakes.  Now I know it's easier said than done,  

I've been there as well when  learning languages, however  

this is part of the process of learning and  it's something that's really going to help you. 

You need to make mistakes, you will learn from  those mistakes and that's really going to help  

you in your progress. So rather than getting  embarrassed or seeing these things as failures,  

see them as a part of learning. You just need  to change your mindset to a positive one. 

Another area that can really help you with this is  self-awareness. So this is all about being aware  

of what you don't like to learn or maybe what  gives you anxiety or makes you a bit stressed. 

If you identify these areas then you can  find coping mechanisms and by that I mean  

you can find ways of coping with it, so that you  don't have these negative feelings towards them,  

which might hinder your progress. So practicing meditation or mindfulness  

can really help in this area, and if you can  come against this barrier and break through it  

it's going to help you make more progress. Remember, learning happens when you engage  

in a topic, build your knowledge on it and then  consolidate it. For example, if you find a TV  

series that you're really interested in then  you will start to watch it and then you might  

binge watch it, which means that you watch a  lot of episodes within one small period of time,  

so you're building your knowledge on it and  then you might actually start talking about  

it with your friends and telling them about it. So  you're consolidating what you've already learned!

So what about no motivation,  no learning? Is this true? 

So if you develop a really good system, motivation  is not going to be essential to your learning.  

If your motivation ends then you  have a system to fall back on  

so you don't need to really be motivated to learn. You want to make English part of your life you  

want to enjoy your lifestyle English, so you  can start by creating micro-habits and by that  

I mean it's very small habits, it doesn't take  a lot of commitment or motivation to do it,  

but they are small things that you start to do  throughout your day to have this system in place. 

So we've made lots of lessons about  things like this that you could find  

out more about and I'll link those  down in the description box below.

But it could be something as simple as changing  one of your life things to English, so you could  

change the settings on your mobile phone, you  could change your calendar on your laptop to  

English, you could listen to the radio in English. These are very small things but if you make them  

habits then it's going to make a big  difference and motivation will not be  

important, but do remember that motivation grows  from starting a task so it's always hard to just  

get started so try to make that process easier. For example if you want to start going out  

running or for a walk in the mornings make  it easier for yourself: fix your clothes the  

night before, have them ready in your bedroom  somewhere so that you can quickly get changed,  

have your shoes by the door so that all you have  to do is put your shoes on and leave the house. 

If you want to listen to a podcast  on your way to work in the morning  

download the podcast the night before. That  way it's there ready and waiting for you. 

This way you're going to make your English  a part of your life in a way that is fun,  

natural and convenient. It won't seem like  a chore and you'll really look forward to it  

one way that you can definitely enjoy learning  English is with our RealLife Native Immersion  

Course, which I highly recommend you check out. This 41-week course will take you on a real-life  

adventure of the English language each week,  exploring a different topic connected to our goal,  

to help you understand and use real native  English and make it a permanent part of your life,  

in a way that is fun, natural and convenient and  the best part is you can try it right now for  

FREE with our 3-Part Power Learning Series. All you have to do is click up here or down  

in the description box below  to learn more and sign up now!

Now what do we mean by "compare, don't despair"? So what lots of learners tend to do  

is they look at other learners around them  and they compare themselves with them. 

Now this is very natural humans do it all the  time and sometimes we do it in a negative way.  

However you can compare yourself to others in a  way that is positive, so you won't worry about  

it and that's what I mean by despair. So instead of comparing yourself to  

someone and saying, "Oh why am I not at  their level? Why are they better than me  

at this area of learning English? Don't look at it that way. Look at them as  

a role model or a source of inspiration. That's  going to help you achieve more too, rather than  

focusing on where they are in their learning  process try to focus on how they got there. 

This is the key, and that's what's going to help  you here. Chances are they worked really hard  

and maybe they have some great methods and  some great tips that are going to help you,  

so let's just take a moment to stop and I want  you to think about where you are in your learning  

journey right now and where you were maybe  six months ago, a year ago, five years ago,  

whenever you started learning English. So have a think about where you were  

when you started and where you are  today. Just take a pause, take a moment  

and actually reflect and think about that. You're probably surprised at how much you've  

accomplished, right? So be sure to sometimes  take these moments and actually reflect  

and think on how far you've come, and then you  can use that to help to guide you further to  

make even more progress and achieve your goals. A great way to track your progress is to keep  

a journal, this way you can look back  and see how much progress you've made.  

You can record yourself, so if you're doing  this maybe weekly or monthly you can then  

listen back and again see the difference. You can also film yourself talking. There are lots  

of things that you can do. That's going to  help you to measure your progress, so in  

thinking about this let's take a look at this  quote by Steven Pressfield from The War of Art:  

"The professional has learned that success,  like happiness, comes as a by-product of work." 

So these small signs of progress in your  learning are really going to make a difference  

and help you to understand and see how far  you've come and want you to achieve more.

So let's just summarize what  we've learned here. Now remember  

extrinsic motivation can be useful,  but it's not going to help you in a  

long-term project like learning English. Let's consider the following aspects:

So if you already keep a track of your progress  or you want to start now let me know down in  

the comments below, because I'd love to hear how  you're going to use this video in your learning. 

And now it's time to go beyond the  classroom and live your English. Aww yeah!!